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PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE NANDI PEOPLE OF KENYA. Jeruto Pascaline *, Mutai Charles^ and Ouma George*^
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PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE NANDI PEOPLE OF KENYA Jeruto Pascaline *, Mutai Charles^ and Ouma George*^ *Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), P.O Box 249 Kitale, Kenya; ^Center for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, P.O. Box 54840-00200, Nairobi, Kenya; *^Department of Botany and Horticulture,Maseno University, P.O. Box 333, Maseno, Kenya
BACKGROUND • Plants useful - food, shelter, clothing, fuel, medicine, crafts, cosmetics, income & employment, Herbal products- spices, tisane, medicinal raw materials, aromatics plants, functional food ingredients, essential oils, flavourings, fragrance products, dietary supplements and ecological balance. • Medicinal value- depends on chemical substance; produces definite physiological effect on the body • Bioactive compounds: alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, phenolics etc. • Natural products research- not yet exhausted (10% plants investigated). • Phytochemical test- patentable & industrially exploitable cpds: drug development.
Materials and methods Field survey Herbarium specimens were collected using standard herbarium techniques, identified at University of Nairobi and confirmed at National Museums of Kenya. • Authentic specimens deposited at the Botanic garden, Maseno university herbarium for future reference.
PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING PLANT COLLECTION • Plants for screening selected based on their high information consensus • Plant parts were collected and treated according to Harborne (1973). PLANT EXTRACTION • They were extracted sequentially using chloroform , methanol then water (Harborne, 1973). • The extracts were run on TLC plates. • Active compounds were observed after applying spraying reagents.
Phytochemical analysis. 1. Crude extract quality • T. asiatica and C. edulis –highest crude extract both in chloroform and methanol solvent. • C. abbysinica and S. princeae had the lowest yield • T. asiastica and C. edulis – High root crude extracts (chloroform & methanol) • Water extracts – C. abbyssinica leaves and E. cymosia roots had highest yield
Chemical compounds analysis • Alkaloids and terpernoids occurred in all the cloroform extracts • Phenolics occurred in all methanolic extracts except Ajugaremota.
Qualitative analysis of the phytochemicals of the medicinal roots (a) (b) Key: + = Presences of constituents; - = Absence of constituents
Conclusion • Presence of phenolic compounds in Ajuga remota validates its medicinal use by the Nandi practitioners. • The plants studied are potential sources of useful drugs. • Further studies recommended - to isolate, identify, characterize and elucidate the structure of the bioactive compounds. • Antimalarial activities of these plants for the treatments of the diseases as claimed by traditional healers - investigated.
Acknowledgement • People of Nandi for sharing the indigenous knowledge. • Co-authors for teamwork in writing the paper. • Staff – NMK, UoN, Maseno University.