Assessment of Fatty Acid, Proximate and Quantitative Phytochemical Compositions of Matured Stem of Costus afer (Bush Cane).

Abstract

This study estimated the fatty acid, proximate and quantitative phytochemical compositions of Costus afer matured stem collected from Choba campus of University of Port Harcourt, in Choba community, Rivers State. This was carried out using standard procedures of analysis (fatty acid and proximate) as well as gas chromatographic method (quantitative phytochemical analysis). The fatty acid analysis of the plant stem revealed high contents of linolenic acid (32.26%), linoleic acid (25.89%) and palmitic acid (25.48%) and moderate levels of oleic acid (7.11%) and stearic acid (6.36%) while myristic acid, palmitoleic acid, arachidonic acid, behenic acid and lignoceric acid was low and caprylic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, margaric acid, arachidonic acid, erucic acid were absent. The results of the proximate composition of the stem of Costus afer indicated that total carbohydrate composition of Costus afer stem was the highest (54.98%) while crude fat had the lowest value of 1.15%. The moisture content had a moderate value of 22.15% while total ash (4.60%), crude protein (7.72%) and crude fibre (9.40%) values were low. The gas chromatographic analysis of the stem indicated that the total alkaloid composition was 70.59mg/100g with high compositions of papaverine (44.72%), methyl morphine (23.24%), morphine (17.92%) and narcotine (14.11%). The total flavonoids concentration was 28.29mg/100g. Myricetin (69.79%) had the highest value with moderate levels of quercetin (14.88%) and kaempferol (9.78%). The total composition of saponin was 2.87mg/100g. The sapogenin content of the stem (39.20%) was the highest with moderate levels of diosgenin (26.13%), saponine (22.12%) and tigonine (9.76%) while gitogenin value (2.28%) was observed to be low. The analysis of the plant stem showed the presence of glycosides (22.35mg/100mg) made up mainly of costugenin (65.60%), digitoxin (18.73%), digoxin (6.28%), salicin (4.76%) and low levels of ouabain (1.95%) and kaemferol-3-rhamnoside (1.08%). The study has shown that matured stems of Costus afer can contribute greatly towards meeting human nutritional requirements and suggest the possibility of its use in folklore medicine.
 Keywords: Costus afer, phytochemicals, proximate composition, fatty acids.

Quantitative phytochemicals and essential oil constituents of costus lucanusianus stem

“…mg/100g) in the stem of costus lucanusianus plant with costusoside and Arbutin having the highest and lowest concentrations respectively. This value is higher than the value recorded for costus afer stem by [16,18] and for other plant stems [33,23,34,35].…”

“…The total saponins composition was 837.38mg/100g.With Diosgenin having the highest concentration (533.83mg/100g) and Conyᴢorgin the lowest concentration (1.18×10 -4 mg/100g). This is higher than the amount reported by [16] in the stem, leaf, and rhizhome of costus afer and that reported by [17,18]. Saponins are another type of bioactive chemical constituent which are involved in plant diseases resistance because of their antimicrobial activity [19].…”

Protective influence of Costus afer Aqueous Extract In Rats Fed With Crude Oil Contaminated Diet as Measured by Employing Biochemical Indices

“…Costus afer is reported by many authors to exhibit remarkable antioxidant properties [54,55].This efficacy is predicated on the presence of antioxidant vitamins and antioxidant micronutrients [56,57].…”

Identification of bioactive cytotoxic compound of red button ginger extracted by solvent fractionation

“…A recent study found that natural products or its derivatives constitute more than 50% of cancer treatment drugs (Newman & Cragg, 2016). Although studies have showed the presence of numerous phytochemicals in Costus species such as: alkaloid, flavonoids, saponin, glycosides, and terpenoids (Nwauche et al., 2018; Siqueira et al, 2016), little was known about C. woodsonii and its chemical compositions. Our study is the first to report the cytotoxic activity of different plant parts of C. woodsonii .…”

“…Pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anticancer, anti‐inflammatory, and antiangiogenic activities of C. igneus and C. speciosus have also been well described in the literature (Hegde et al, 2014; Selim & Al Jaouni, 2016). Studies have showed the presence of numerous phytochemicals in Costus species such as: alkaloid, flavonoids, saponin, glycosides, and terpenoids (Nwauche et al., 2018; Siqueira et al, 2016). Costus speciosus rhizome extract showed in vitro cytotoxic activity against epidermoid (KB), ductal (BT‐549), malignant melanoma (SK‐MEL), and ovarian (SKOV‐3) cancer cell lines (Ibrahim et al., 2019).…”