Quantitative Study and Secondary Metabolites Determination of Aqueous and Methanolic Extracts of Two Varieties of Cola Nuts

Description

The qualitative phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, cardiac glycoside, glycoside, saponins glycosides, steroid, and volatile oil for both red and white cola nut with varying degree in their concentration, only anthraquinone was not detected. The quantitative analysis revealed that there was a significant difference at (p< 0.05) in saponins content of white cola nut when compared with red cola nut which has the highest percentage of saponins content (20.60%) than red cola nut with (10.80%). While no significant difference in the contents of alkaloid, flavonoids, tannins and glycosides. The alkaloids contents of red cola nut was higher (16.07%) when compared to white cola nut with (14.40%), while flavonoids contents of white cola nut was high (6.33%) compared to red cola nut with (5.60%), glycoside contents of white cola nut (6.76%) to that of red cola nut with (5.68%) and tannin content of white cola nut (1.18%) as compared with the red cola nut (1.12%). Conclusively this proved the scientific basis for the traditional uses of the plant extracts that have long being the knowledge for many years. It therefore recommended that further research study should be conduct on characterization of bioactive secondary metabolite of cola nut with a view of stabilizing the active ingredient so that they can be prevented from losing their potency.