Proximate and Phytochemical Compositions of Leaf and Root of (Cattle Stick) <i>Carpolobia lutea</i> G. Don

Abstract

Carpolobia lutea is a medicinal plant commonly utilized in Nigeria to boost libido. The ethnomedicinal importance of any plant lies in some secondary metabolites. Hence, the present study was carried out to investigate the proximate and phytochemical composition of roots and leaves of this plant using standard methods. The proximate composition of leaves and roots showed moisture, ash, fibre, protein, fat and carbohydrate contents with values that ranged between 8.84-9.55, 3.48-3.65, 1.10-1.06, 6.64-8.39, 1.80-1.80 and 76.16-77.47% respectively. The leaves contained higher amount of ash, crude protein and fat than the roots. The results of ethanolic extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, steroids, saponins, tannins, phenols, terpenoids, anthocyanin, carotenoids and flavonoids in both the leaves and roots. These phytochemicals were found to be significantly higher in roots except for anthraquinones, flavonoids and steroids which were significantly higher in the leaves. Among the phytochemicals, alkaloids were found to be highest in concentration followed in decreasing order by saponins, steroids, tannins, flavonoids, anthraquinones, anthocyanin, terpenoids, phenols and carotenoids. The results indicated that, C. lutea leaf and root have high nutritive and medicinal values and this could be explored for pharmaceutical purposes.