This study was aimed at addressing the problematic taxonomy of the genus Cissus L. using three species namely; Cissus aralioides (Welw. ex Bak.) Planch, Cissus petiolata Hook.f and Cissus lageniflora Gilg and Brandt found in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. The investigation was carried out using morphological, anatomical, epidermal and phytochemical lines of evidence. Macromorphology results showed that Cissus aralioides, Cissus lageniflora and Cissus petiolata matured leaf possess digitately compound leaf type, trifoliate compound leaf type and simple leaf type respectively. Micromorphological results showed that all studied species were hypostomatic with anomocytic stomata type present in the abaxial surface of all species. Epidermal cell shape of the adaxial and abaxial surface of all species were pentagonal and irregular to polygonal respectively. Transverse sections of the petiole of studied species shows an arranged and open vascular bundles in all species, variations where however seen in the number of vascular bundles. Methanolic extract of the three cissus species studied revealed the presence of secondary metabolites like; Phenols, Alkaloids, Aglycone Glycosides, Cardiac Glycosides, Steroidal Aglycone Glycosides in the stem and leaf of all species. The results obtained shows that all studied species show diverse characteristic differences but these differences are not adequate and convincing enough to separate them into different genera but it shows that that Cissus aralioides and Cissus lageniflora are more closely related than they are to Cissus petiolate. Moreover, more species and other lines of evidence should be used in future research. A dendogram to the relatedness of the species and a dichotomous bracketed key to their identification is provided.

A study of morphological and anatomical diversity on three species of Amaranthus in the Amaranthaceae family namely; A. hybridus L., A.viridis L. and A. spinosus L. from the three senatorial district of Rivers state namely; Rivers East (upland), Rivers South East (upland) and Rivers West (coastal region) was studied to examine the diversity that exist even among similar species from different regions. Result obtained from this research showed high rate of diversity. Examination of the tran–sections of blades revealed uni–seriate epidermis, ground tissue with angular collenchyma and slender parenchyma. The vascular bundles shape had only crescent as the shape pattern. The midrib shape in cross section has three patterns in which arc, rounded and crescent bundle occurs. The examination of the petioles exhibits new and varied characters for A. viridis such as petiole shape (cross section), vascular bundles (shape, number, arrangement). While the resulted characters from the observation of the stem structure showed less variation. 52 quantitative and qualitative characters were achieved from morphological and anatomical characters and applied for construction of a dendogram using the Paleontological statistics (PAST) software which showed variation even among similar species from different senatorial district.Keywords: Amaranthus, Morphology, Anatomy, Diversity

The Amaranth plants are annuals or short-lived perennials with over 103 species of flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae, distributed nearly worldwide. Several amaranth species are useful as food crops and are grown both for their leaves and for their edible seeds, which are a nutritious pseudocereal (nongrass seeds used like cereal grains). This paper reports the genetic diversity of three species of Amaranthus (A. hybridus L., A. viridis L. and A. spinosus L.) in Rivers state of Nigeria. Result obtained from this research showed high rate of diversity. DNA characterization and sequencing of the species were done through plastid Ribulose-1,5biophosphate Carboxylase large chain (rbcL) genetic marker to determine the rate of genetic variation among members of this genus in our study area. The sequence figures were firstly compared on Basic Local Alignment Sequence Tool for validation. Phylogenetic and molecular evolutional analysis was conducted using MEGA version 7. The dendogram of the molecular phylogeny generated from MEGA 7 software shows elevated rate of variation among studied species.Keywords: Amaranthus, Genetic, Diversity, rbcl

The pyhtochemical constituents of butanol and acid leaf extracts of eleven (11) plant species from three different families (Annonaceae, Apocynaceae and Euphorbiaceae) obtained from various locations in eastern and southern Nigeria were made following standard techniques. Results obtained show that the leaf extracts contain alkaloids, flavonoids and saponins. This paper provides evidence that alcoholic and acid leaf extract of the selected plant species studied contains medicinally important metabolites that justifies their usage as traditional medicine for treatment of various ailments.Keywords: Tropical plants, Phytochemicals, Ethno-medicine, Extracts