PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, PROXIMATE COMPOSITION AND MINERAL CONTENT OF FUMTUMIA ELASTICA (PREUSS) STAPF. LEAF EXTRACTS

Abstract

Funtumia elastica (Lagos silk rubber), a member of the Apocynaceae family, is popularly used in the Western region of Nigeria in the treatment of hemorrhoid and more recently malaria fever. In this study, we evaluated the proximate composition, mineral content and phytochemical screening of extracts of F.elastica (FE) leaves. Dried powdered plant leaves were extracted in ethanol to obtain the ethanolic extract and distilled water to obtain aqueous extract. The resulting extracts were used to analyze for the proximate content, mineral content and phytochemicals constituents. The proximate analysis results of the dried ground leaves of FE (%) showed high moisture (63.8 ± 0.45), crude fibre (16.77 ± 1.23) and crude carbohydrate (14.98 ± 2.47) content. There were moderate ash (4.0 ±0.06), very low crude protein (0.03 ± 0.001) and crude fat (0.42 ± 0.011) content. Analysis of some of the mineral constituents of FE (mg % of dried weight) showed that it contains sodium (0.24 ± 0.03), potassium (0.01 ± 0.0034), magnesium (0.9 ± 0.048), calcium (3.5 ± 0.27) and phosphorus (0.70 ± 0.015). Phytochemical screening of the ethanolic and aqueous extracts of FE revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids, reducing sugars and anthraquinones. However, saponins, cardiac glycosides and tannins were detected in the ethanolic extract only. The nutritional and phytochemical constituents of Funtumia elastica leaves may support its ethno-botanical uses in folk medicine