Medicinal Potential of Ocimum Gratissimum (Scent Leaf) and Vernonia Amygdalina Del (Bitter Leaf)

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables are a great source of phytochemicals that play protective roles in many diseases. A comparative phytochemical composition of Ocimum Gratissimum L. (Scent leaf) and Vernonia Amygdalina Del (Bitter leaf) was carried out. The plant samples were washed thoroughly and sun dried till no moisture was felt and then each sample was blended into fine powder and stored in air tight container for analysis. The blended sample was placed in a soxhlet extractor. This was done differently for each of the test samples, using a thimble. The extraction was done using 250ml of ethanol for about four hours. After the extraction, the solvent used (ethanol) was recovered from the crude extract and the extract concentrated by distillation. Quantitative determination of flavonoid was done according to the method described by Harbone (1973). Saponin content of the sample was determined by double solvent extraction gravimetric method as described by Harbone (1973). The quantitative determination of alkaloid was carried out by alkaline precipitation, through gravimetric method described by Harbone (1973). Phenol content of sample was determined by the method described by Pearson (1976). The fallins-Denis spectrophotometric method as described by Harbone (1973) was used for the determination of tannin. The study revealed that Veronia Amygdalina yielded higher alkaloid, flavonoid and saponin (22.5%, 12% and 7.85% respectively) than Ocimum Gratissimum which yielded (alkaloid 7.5%, flavonoid 10%, and saponin 4.05%). On the contrary Ocimum Gratissimum had a higher yield of tannin and phenol (0.514% and 0.445% respectively) against Vernonia Amygdalina tannin 0.4145 and phenol 0.400%. These values showed that Ocimum Gratissimum protects more against bacterial, fungal and microbial infections compared to vernonia Amygdalina. Similarly, vernonia Amygdalina contains more antioxidant and hypolipidemic\hypocholesterolemic properties, than Ocimum Gratissimum hence could prevent diseases caused by oxidative stress, inhibit heart attack, cancerous cell growth and proliferation and is not likely to contribute to any disease associated with hyperlipidemia compared to Ocimum Gratissimum.