Bioprospective Screening of Ricinodendron Heudelotii Seeds

Abstract

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com IntroductionThe plant Ricinodendron heudelotii commonly called Njangsa is an oily seed tree that has long been used as a medicinal plant. Its uses includes: an antidote against poison, because the extract of the bark are said to contain lupeol, to cure various diseases such as cough, malaria, yellow fever, stomach pain, rheumatism. Other characteristics of the plant are its aphrodisiac and antiInflammatory properties. It has also been used for treatment of infertility and menstrual pain.According to World Health Organization [1], a medicinal plant is any plant which contains substances that can be used for the therapeutic purpose or substances which are precursors for the synthesis. A plant becomes a medicinal plant only when its biological activities has been ethnobotanically reported or scientifically established [2,3].In contrast to synthetic conventional pharmaceuticals, many medicinal plants exert their beneficial effects through the additive or synergistic action of several chemical compounds acting at single or multiple target sites associated with a physiological process [4]. Hence the need to screen the seed of Ricinodendron heudelotii for the presence and concentration of the secondary metabolites (phytochemicals), as the seed is majorly used in preparing various dishes.Phytochemicals are chemical compound that occur naturally in plant, provide the plant with it various characteristics such as colour, flavor, odor and other organoleptic properties .These secondary metabolites are medicinal and can also be obtained from various anatomical structures of plants [2,5] reported that most of the phytochemicals are produced through biosynthesis in the metabolic pathway [6,7] h. Indoles and glucosinolates: may induce detoxification of carcinogens, limit production of cancer related hormones, block carcinogens and prevent tumour growth.This study therefore screens for the presence (qualitative) and concentration (quantitative) phytochemical constituents of the extract of the dried Ricinodendron heudelotii seed, aimed at enhancing the therapeutic value and its use in pharmaceutical industries.

Augmentation Potency of Ethanol Seed Extract of <i>Ricinodendron heudelotii</i> on Some Male Reproductive Hormones in Wistar Albino Rats

“…The increase was observed to be concentration dependent as shown in table 3 and was significant at p≤0.05. The increase in serum FSH and LH levels can be attributed to the presence of phytochemicals such as Tannins, Flavonoids, Oxalate, Phenol, Phytate, Alkaloid and Saponin [5]. Flavonoids are found in a considerable amount in Ricinodendron heudelotii seed extract and functions as Anti-oxidant, Enzyme inhibitors, Immune or Hormones modulators [23] and specific Flavonoids are identified to have a wide range of biological properties that has good effects.…”

“…The presence of some metabolites found in plants [2,3], enables them to carry out their therapeutic function through the additive or synergistic action of several chemical compounds acting at single or multiple target sites associated with a physiological process [4], hence the need to evaluate the plant of study for its assumed therapeutic value for the enhancement of reproductive functions in male wistar albino rats. The plant Ricinodendron heudelotii as revealed from study [5] contains phytochemicals that aids its potency to be used as a medicinal plant. Some of the medicinal properties of Ricinodendron heudelotii include; antimicrobial, antiulcer, antihyperlipidemic, and antioxidant biomarkers enhancer in diabetic oxidative stressed wistar albino rats [6].…”

Effect of Ricinodendron heudelotii seed extract on the oxidative stress biomarkers of Diabetic albino rats

“…This is due to the beneficial effect that plants exert through the additive or synergistic action of several chemical compounds acting at single or multiple target sites associated with a physiological process as reported by (Singh, 2011;Odinga et al, 2016) yet with less or no side effects, its affordability and availability (Firdous, 2014). In their research, Odinga et al, 2016 found that the plant seed of Ricinodendron heudelotii contains some phytochemicals such as Tannin, Lunamarine, Ribalidine, Spogenin, Catechin, Rutin, Epicatichin, Kaempferol, Naringenin, amongst others. These phytochemicals exhibit various functions such as anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-platelet, anti-allergic (Johnson et al, 2012) and anti-ulcer (Odinga et al, 2018).…”