The Phytochemical Evaluation of Some Medicinal Plants in Pankshin District of Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria

Aim: To identify and quantify some phytochemicals present in the extracts of four selected medicinal plants from Pankshin District of Pankshin Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria Study Design: Three solvents were used for the extractions of nine phytochemicals in four medicinal plants for qualitative, quantitative and Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) analysis Materials and Methods: The plants were collected from their natural habitat of Pankshin Local Government Council of Plateau State, Nigeria and were washed under running tap water, air dried in a shade at room temperature, milled well into a fine powder using a mixer grinder. The homogenized fine powders of leaf, bark and root for each plant were separately soaked in different conical flasks containing water, ethanol and hexane and the sample extracts were obtained using Soxhlet apparatus. The presence of phytochemical contents of the plant were determined by standard methods. The functional groups analyses were carried out by FTIR. All data were expressed as mean ± standard deviations. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at p=.05 was performed by SPSS version 23. Results: The qualitative and quantitative phytochemical screening revealed the presence of tannins, polysteroids, saponins, proteins, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, quinones and ascorbic acids. The plants’ extracts showed that the solubility of phytochemicals was not only dependent on the type of solvent used but also on plant type and on the plants’ part. The order of the concentration of phytochemicals obtained in this study was phenolics>tanins>alkaloids>saponins>proteins>flavonoids>quinones>polysteroids>ascorbic acid; according plants’ organs was P. thonningii leaves>S. latifolius leave> S. latifolius roots >S.longipedunculata  leave> E.senegalensis leave> P. thonningii bark > S.longipedunculata  root> E.senegalensis root> P. thonningii root> S.longipedunculata  bark> S. latifolius bark> E. senegalensis bark and with plants type was P. thonningii> S. latifolius> S.longipedunculata> E.senegalensis. The total contents of the phytochemical analyzed in the three organs indicated that the leave accumulated the highest contents of tannin, alkaloids, phenolics,  polysteroids, quinones and ascorbic acid while the roots were the richest in saponins, flavonoids, and proteins and bark was moderate in all the concentrations of the phytochemicals. The FT-IR spectrum of the ethanolic extracts of the parts (leave, bark and root) of the four plants gave characteristic bands (absorptions) occurring at different wavelengths which indicated the presence of C – H, O – H, C – O, C= O, =C-H and C – N (only with S.longipedunculata). Conclusion: The order of the total phytochemicals detected in this study was phenolics>tanins>alkaloids>saponins>proteins>flavonoids>quinones>polysteroids>ascorbic acid, The leaves was richest in tannin, alkaloids, phenolics polysteroids, quinones and ascorbic acid while the roots accumulated highest levels of saponins, flavonoids, and proteins.