Comparative study on the levels of phytochemicals present in n-hexane, ethanol, aqueous, ethylacetate and methanol extracts of Uvaria chamae stem

Abstract

A comparative phytochemical analysis was conducted to determine the levels of the phytochemicals present in n-hexane, ethanol, aqueous, ethylacetate and methanol extracts of Uvaria chamae stem. The qualitative phytochemical screening showed the presence of phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, steroids, and glycosides in U. chamae stem. The result of the quantitative estimations of the concentrations of the various phytochemicals in the different solvent extracts recorded variations, with some showing higher concentration than others. Ethanolic extract of the plant showed significantly (p˂0.05) higher concentrations of saponins, (602.00 ± 1.00 µg/ml) and phenols (82.00 ± 2.00 µg/ml) than in other solvent extracts. The concentrations of alkaloids in ethanolic and aqueous extracts (708.00 ± 1.00 µg/ml) were higher than in other extracts. Also, aqueous extracts showed significantly (p˂0.05) higher concentrations in flavonoids, (0.82 ± 0.02 mg/ml), glycosides (10.30 ± 0.10 µM) and tannins (0.19.00 ± 0.15 mg/ml) than in other extracts. The concentrations of steroids were found to be significantly (p˂0.05) higher in the methanolic extract (107.00 ± 2.00 µg/ml) than in other extracts. Therefore, the study showed that Uvaria chamae stem contains appreciable amounts of medicinally important phytochemicals, with solubilities (extraction powers) differing in different solvents. Hence, the various solvents with higher yield can be exploited to get higher concentrations of the required phytochemical.