Phytochemical screening and haematological studies of Parquetina nigrescens ethanol and chloroform leaves extracts in normal albino rats

The effects of crude ethanol-chloroform extract of Parquetina nigrescens leaves on the haematological parameters of normal albino rats were investigated at dose of 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight (b.w). Acute toxicity study (LD50) and phytochemical constituents of the extracts were also evaluated. Thirty (30) male Wistar rats were grouped into five (5) of 6 rats each (n = 6). Group A: Control; administered 2 ml of normal saline. The other groups were administered extracts viz: Group B - 50 mg/kg b.w of ethanol extract, Group C - 100 mg/kg b.w of ethanol extract, Group D - 50 mg/kg b.w of chloroform extract and Group E - 100 mg/kg b.w of chloroform extract. After 21 days of administration, the blood samples were collected for the analysis. The results revealed that, the ethanol and chloroform extracts caused significant (p 0.05) decrease in white blood cell differential compared with animals in the control group. The monocyte and platelet concentration of the rats administered both extracts were found to have non-significant (p > 0.05) decrease at 50 and 100 mg/kg b.w of administration compared with animals in the control group. The results of the qualitative phytochemical analysis showed that the ethanol-chloroform extract tested positively to flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, saponnin and reducing sugars while, chloroform extract tested positive to fat and oil and steroids. Acute toxicity and lethality studies on ethanol-chloroform extracts revealed an oral LD50 equal or more than 5000 mg/kg body weight in mice. It can be concluded that, the plant Parquetina nigrescens leaf has beneficial haematological and immunological properties in Wistar albino rats. It also revealed that P. nigrescens possessed erythropoietic potentials at minimal dose which lends support to its use in the treatment of anaemia. Key words: Acute toxicity, phytochemical, immunological, anaemia, haematological.