Journal Article

Phytochemical, Heavy Metal Analysis and Phytotoxic Activities of Crude Extract of Annona senegalensis Stem Bark

Abstract

The phytochemical, heavy metals analysis and phytotoxic activities of Annona senegalensis extracts was determined. The fresh stem bark of A. senegalensis was collected, dried under air at room temperature, pounded into a powder and extracted by serial extraction. The Phytochemical screening was conducted, the concentrations of ten (10) heavy metals in A. senegalensis stem bark extracts were evaluated by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) while the phytotoxic activity was studied using radish seeds in various concentrations of A. senegalensis stem bark (1000, 500, 250 and 125mg/mL). The result indicates that alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins and tannins, glycosides, terpenoids and anthraquinones were detected while Steroids were not detected. Heavy metals analysis showed that the concentrations of Pb, Mg, Mn, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ca, Ni, Hg and Cd were 3.03±0.01, 289.86±2.51, 44.03±0.99, 12.89±0.36, 30.48±0.03, 5.29±0.07, 88.78±2.01, 0.63±0.05, 0.02±0.01 and 0.07±0.03 respectively which were all below maximum permissible levels set by different standard organizations like WHO, FAO and FDA. For the phytotoxic activities, the result shows that the root and shoot lengths of the crude methanol extracts were generally higher than the control. However, there was higher % seed inhibition in the different concentrations of the crude methanol extracts (66.67%, 53.33%, 46.67%, and 80.00%), unlike the control which had only 40.00% seed inhibition. These results have proven the medicinal significances of A. senegalensis and a promising plant product based natural herbicides

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