Comparative phytochemical and brine shrimp lethality assay of extracts of fruit and leaf of Ziziphus mauritiana plant

Different plants may contain varying amount of phytochemical and also different degrees of toxicity. This study aimed at evaluating the phytochemical present in the leaf and fruit of Ziziphus mauritiana plant and their toxic effects using brine shrimp lethality assay. The yield obtained after exhaustive maceration of the plant parts revealed aqueous with the highest yield and ethanol with the lowest yield in leaf and ethylacetate extract in fruit. The phytochemical screening revealed absence saponins and glycoside in the leaf ethylacetate extract and anthraquinone in the all the extracts screened also absence of triterpenes in aqueous and ethanol extract and flavonoid in ethylacetate extract while anthraquinone is absent in all the extract of the fruit mesocarp. Brine shrimp lethality assay revealed ethanol extract to be most toxic for both plant parts (fruit and leaf extracts) while aqueous extracts are the least toxic. The result may indicate that the ethanol extract of the plant may contain phytochemical which maybe toxic.

Author(s): Tajudeen A Owolarafe, Mohammad A Wudil, Adamu J Alhassan

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