PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS IN ROOTS AND TUBERS OF BOTSWANA MEDICINAL PLANTS- Solanum Aculeastrum dunal, Elephantorrhiza elephentina, Cadaba aphylla (Thunb) AND Adenia glauca

Abstract

Medicinal plants play an important role in our life. Worldwide modern drugs used in healthcare are derived from plants. Several Rhizomes and tubers are important for people due to their edible as well as medicinal properties. The Rhizome and tuberous plants namely Solanum aculeastrum dunal, Elephantorrhiza elephentina, Cadaba aphylla (Thunb), and Adenia glauca which are indigenous plants of Botswana have been so far employed in the treatment of cutaneous, subcutaneous parasitic infection, wounds, dermatological diseases, gastrointestinal system disorders, sexual dysfunction, and sexually transmitted infections. This study was conducted to identify the phytoconstituents by subjecting them to Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction (UAE) with distilled water, methanol, ethanol, chloroform, and hexane, each extract of which was further applied to the phytochemical screening through qualitative and quantitative tests. The extracting yields of Solanum aculeastrum dunal with different solvents gave the values of 13.0% (hexane), 13.0% (chloroform), 66.6% (ethanol), 66.6% (methanol) and 46.6% (aqueous), Elephantorrhiza elephentina 13.0% (hexane), 20.0% (chloroform), 66.6% (ethanol), 80.0% (methanol) and 86.0% (aqueous), Cadaba aphylla 60% (ethanol), 66.6% (methanol) and 53.3% (aqueous), Adenia glauca 40% (ethanol), 40.0% (methanol) and 46.6% (aqueous). Standards were used to determine the total content of alkaloid, flavonoid, phenol, saponin, and tannin (Atropine, Quercetin, Gallic acid, Tannic acid, and Quillaja). The regression coefficient (R2 ) was calculated and for Alkaloids, it is 0.9925, flavonoid (0.9953), phenol (0.9978), tannin (0.9955), and saponin (0.9912) respectively. These medicinal plants have produced many phytochemical substances in quantitative analysis, which will be applied in future drug analysis research