PROXIMATE AND PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF Alstonia boonei LEAF

Alstonia boonei De wild is a plant belonging to the Aponcyanacea family. Its leaves, root bark and stem bark parts have various traditional uses in parts of West Africa for the management of some ailments such as: Malaria, hypertension and cancer. The nutritional composition and phytochemical content of the leaf of Alstonia boonei De wild were explored under standard analytical methods in order to ingress the numerous potential of the plant. The qualitative phytochemical screening of aqueous extract of Alstonia boonei De wild, leaves showed the presence of saponins, tannins, alkaloids, phenols, steroids, cardiac glycosides, coumerins, phlobatannins and protein; with saponins, tannins, steroids, and phenol highly present. Flavanoids, terpenoids, emotins, anthraquinones and anthocyanins were seen to be absent. Variation of this composition was observed in the ethanol extract which showed that saponins, phenols, terpenoids, steroids, alkaloids, protein and anthocyanins were seen to be present in moderate proportion, whereas flavonoids, phlobatannins,coumerin, emotins and anthraquinones were seen to be absent, while cardiac glycosides was highly present. The medicinal value of Alstonia boonei De wild is influenced by the presence and levels of these secondary metabolites. The proximate analysis revealed that Alstonia boonei leaves are rich in carbohydrates (57.45 ± 1.38%), have a moderate content of Ash (3.67± 0.16%), crude protein (8.05 ± 00.05%), crude fats (9.50 ± 0.24%), and crude fibre (11.00 ± 0.47%); but a moderate content of moisture (10.30 ± 0.27%). The presence of high carbohydrates, protein, crude fats and fibre contents of the leaves may be responsible for their nutritive values