Preliminary Phytochemical Screening, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Crude Leaf Extracts of Pteleopsis Habeensis Aubrev. Ex. Keay (Combretaceae)

Abstract

Pteleopsis habeensis (Aubrev ex Keay), which belongs to the family Combretaceae, is known as Lalen giwa in Hausa language in northern part of Nigeria of Sub Saharan Africa. The area of distribution of Pteleopsis habeensis is restricted to only a few regions: the Bandiagara escarpments in Mali (with the plant population possibly extending into Burkina Faso), the Akosombo and Bui regions in Ghana, and the Yankari Game Reserve and it immediate surroundings in Nigeria. The shrub is use for the treatment of malaria fever, stomach ache, Aphrodisiac and in the destruction of tumours. The leaves of Pteleopsis habeensis were collected from faculty of pharmacy medicinal plant garden University of Maiduguri Borno, Nigeria, in March 2020. The plant was authenticated at the department of biological sciences, University of Maiduguri Borno, Nigeria. Phytochemical screening of crude leaf extract of Pteleopsis habeensis revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, triterpinoids, steroids and cardiac glycosides. The crude leaf Methanol and n-Butanol extracts of Pteleopsis habeensis exhibited antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus spp and the fungus Candida albican using disc diffusion method and broth dilution methods. The fungus Candida albican, showed the highest sensitivity to methanol extract with zone of inhibition 14 mm at 100mg/ml compared to it sensitivity to n-Butanol extract with zone of inhibition 10mm at 100mg/ml. The Minimum Inhibitory concentration is 12.5mg/ml for Methanol extract and 25mg/ml for n-Butanol extract. The evaluation of the antioxidant activity of the n-Butanol and Methanol crude extracts was carried out in vitro through the radical model DPPH, and the antioxidant capacity of the two extracts was measured based on their Percentage scavenging activity and IC50 concentration which corresponds to the concentration of the extracts capable of reducing the initial DPPH absorbance by 50%. The DPPH Assay showed high free radical scavenging activity of the extract that is comparable to Ascorbic acid. The percentage scarvenging activity of Methanol extract was higher than that of the n-Butanol extract in the DPPH assay. This study has therefore showed that Pteleopsis habeensis crude leaf extracts contains phytochemicals, has antioxidant and antimicrobial activity, hence a potential source of a candidate drug whose bioactive constituents can be isolated for pharmaceutical use.