PHYTOCHEMICAL AND SOME PHARMACOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE AERIAL PART OF ALYSICARPUS OVALIFOLIUS Schumach & Thonn FAMILY: FABACEAE

PHYTOCHEMICAL AND SOME PHARMACOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE AERIAL PART OF ALYSICARPUS OVALIFOLIUS Schumach & Thonn FAMILY: FABACEAE

ABSTRACT

Alysicarpus ovalifolius (Schum.&Thonn) Family: Fabaceae is a protein rich fodder plant that is widely distributed across Africa, Asia and Australia and medicinally used to treat cough and wounds. Recently, it has been reported to be used in the Northern part of Nigeria as tea by commercial motor cycle riders popularly known as “okada riders”, labourers and young people .The dried powder of the plant was initially defatted with petroleum ether, the marc was further subjected to extraction with methanol and partitioning with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The preliminary phytochemical screening shows the presence of steroids, triterpenes and cardiac glycosides in the petroleum ether fraction while cardiac glycosides, saponins, steroids, triterpenes and flavonoids are present in the methanolic extract. The n-butanol fraction was subjected to column chromatography, gel filtration and preparative thin layer chromatography to yield two compounds coded D7 and E17. D7 was characterized as a glycosidic flavone (3,5-dihydroxy-4¹-methoxy-7-O-βglycosyl flavone,(C19H22O10) and E17 was characterized as 3 β –cholest-5-ene-3-diol using chemical tests and spectral analysis (1H-NMR) and extensive literature review. The pharmacological studies carried out on the extract to show it has central nervous stimulant activity are, the drug (diazepam) induced- sleep in mice and the hole-board experiment. The acute toxicity test of the extract was also carried out. The diazepam induced-sleep study showed decreased onset of sleep and and increase in the duration of sleep while the hole board suggest that the n-butanol fraction of methanolic extract contain constituents which may possess central nervous system stimulant activity as seen in the exploratory behavior of the mice. It can be said that the plant Alysicarpus ovalifolius (Schum&Thonn) possess some central nervous stimulant activity and therefore the plant could be exploited for its stimulant property

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