Phytochemical Investigation and Characterization on the Root Bark Extract of Prunus Africana

Prunus africana is one of the most popular to treat benign prostate hyperplasia (BHP), and  to treat diarrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, infertility, irregular menstruation, kidney disease, disorders, fevers, obesity, pneumonia, hypertension, antigonorrheic, antimalarial, chest pain; other various diseases. The air dried and powdered plant material (200g) was first soaked with 500 mL n-hexane for 72 hours and yielded 1.3 g of n-hexane extract. Marc was soaked with 400 mL of ethyl acetate for 72 hours and afforded 2g of ethyl acetate extract. Finally, Marc was soaked with 400mL of methanol and yielded 12.6 g of methanol extract. The ethyl acetate extract of the root bark of P. africana afforded a compound coded as AYU . Its Structural determination was accomplished by means of spectroscopic techniques, namely IR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR and DEPT-135. The compound, AYU was isolated and characterized from the root bark of P. african . It was shown that spot on TLC only up on spraying 1% vanillin sulphuric acid and after heating for a few minutes. Generally, chromatographic techniques like PTLC and HPLC are required to isolate more compounds from leaves of P. africana . Also MS and 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques are needed to fully characterize the isolated compound. Keywords: P.africana; benign prostate hyperplasia; characterization; chromatographic techniques; spectroscopic techniques. DOI: 10.7176/CMR/12-6-02 Publication date: July 31 st 2020