ISOLATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM LEAF EXTRACT OF COMBRETUM LAMPROCARPUM (DIELS)

ISOLATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM LEAF EXTRACT OF Combretum lamprocarpum (DIELS)

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The use of medicinal plants in the treatment of diseases is as old as mankind. A medicinal plant is defined as a plant that is useful in therapeutics because it contains active constituents (Sher, 2004). These constituents are mostly secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, essential oils, flavonoids, glycosides, resins, saponins, tannins, and terpenoids (Cowan, 1999).

Plants remain a rich source of secondary metabolites that have been widely used as bioactive constituents in therapeutically effective medicines for several ailments (Hoareau and Da Silva, 1999). Fossil records revealed that the use of plants as medicines by human may be traced back to about 60,000 years ago (Fabricant and Farnsworth, 2001). The search for plants that for remedy against diseases and ailments have been documented since ancient times in the form of traditional medicine. Historically,the beginning of the nineteenth century marked the era of “modern” drugs (Joo, 2014). In the year 1805, morphine, the first pharmacologically active compound was isolated from the opium plant by a German pharmacist, Friedrich Sertürner (Hamilton and Baskett, 2000).

Despite the breakthrough made by mankind in the synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs, the decreasing efficacy of synthetic drugs and the increasing contraindications of their usage, make the continueduse of plants as important sources of medicinal agents (Petrovska, 2012). According to the World Health Organization, traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses (WHO, 2005). Traditional medicines could not be risk-free, and due to their rampant use, it is important that the population be informed of risks that may be linked to their use.

ISOLATION AND CHARACTERISATION OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS FROM LEAF EXTRACT OF Combretum lamprocarpum (DIELS)