PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL SCREENING OF ANCHOMANES DIFFORMIS LEAVES EXTRACT

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL SCREENING OF ANCHOMANES DIFFORMIS LEAVES EXTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

1.0    INTRODUCTION
The ultimate aim of scientific investigation about plants is to make active ingredients which are very useful in production of some chemical compounds which on the other hand contribute immensely in enhancing the standard of some chemical industries in Nigeria and the world at large. Most of these chemical compounds are used largely in production of modern commercially proven drugs used in arresting ailments for health need of the people. These drugs were used initially in crude form and equally used for traditional healing practices or for other purposes that suggested potentially useful for biological activities. The primary benefits of using plants derived medicines are that they are relatively safer than synthetic alternatives[1]. Offering profound therapeutic benefits and more affordable treatment. The prevalence of bioactive principles such as tannins, alkaloids, glycosisdes, terpenoids, flavonoids, steroids, etc underscores the need for continuous search for bioactive or active ingredients extracted from plants, though some of the active ingredients of crude rugs become obsolete because of the drug resistant problems. The consequence of drug resistant implies that new techniques will be adopted to meet up with the resistance of the drug by diseases. Most bioactive compounds of natural origin are secondary metabolites (that is species). Species chemical agents that can be grouped into various categories. A tropical protocol to isolate a pure  chemical agent from natural origin is bio assay guided fractionation, meaning step by step separation of extracted components based on differences in their physiochemical properties and assessing their bioactivity followed by separation and assaying.
In most cases, biologically active compounds have not been determined, therefore it is important to use chromatographic techniques  to isolate, then analyze active components not only for the quality control of crude drugs but also for the elucidation of their structures and therapeutic mechanisms. Most of the drugs employed for the treatment of human ailments are obtained by extraction either by infusion or decoction process using water, natural gin of palm wine as solvents. Correct selection of solvent is vital in the study of activities of plants constituents or active ingredients.

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL SCREENING OF ANCHOMANES DIFFORMIS LEAVES EXTRACT