Project Abstract

Project Overview

<p> </p><p>INTRODUCTION<br>1.1 Background of the Study<br>Plants are important in our everyday existence. They provide our foods, produce<br>the oxygen we breathe, and serve as raw materials for many industrial products such as<br>clothes, foot wears and so many others. Plants also provide raw materials for our<br>buildings and in the manufacture of biofuels, dyes, perfumes, pesticides, adsorbents and<br>drugs. The plant kingdom has proven to be the most useful in the treatment of diseases<br>and they provide an important source of all the world’s pharmaceuticals. The most<br>important of these bioactive constituents of plants are steroids, terpenoids, carotenoids,<br>flavanoids, alkaloids, tannins and glycosides. Plants in all facet of life have served a<br>valuable starting material for drug development (Ajibesin, 2011). Antibiotics or<br>antimicrobial substances like saponins, glycosides, flavonoids and alkaloids etc are found<br>to be distributed in plants, yet these compounds were not well established due to the lack<br>of knowledge and techniques. The phytoconstituents which are phenols, anthraquinones,<br>alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and saponins are antibiotic principles of plants. Plants<br>are now occupying important position in allopathic medicine, herbal medicine,<br>homoeopathy and aromatherapy. Medicinal plants are the sources of many important<br>drugs of the modern world. Many of these indigenous medicinal plants are used as spices<br>and food plants; they are also sometimes added to foods meant for pregnant mothers for<br>medicinal purposes ( Akinpela and Onakoya, 2006). Many plants are cheaper and more<br>accessible to most people especially in the developing countries than orthodox medicine,<br>and there is lower incidence of adverse effects after use. These reasons might account for<br>2<br>their worldwide attention and use. The medicinal properties of some plants have been<br>documented by some researchers ( Akinpelu and Onukoya, 2006). Medicinal plants are of<br>great importance to the health of individuals and communities. It was the advent of<br>antibiotics in the 1950s that led to the decline of the use of plant derivatives as<br>antimicrobials (Marjorie, 1999). Medicinal plants contain physiologically active<br>components which over the years have been exploited in the traditional medical practices<br>for the treatment of various ailments (Ajibesin, 2011). A relatively small percentage of<br>less than 10% of all the plants on earth is believed to serve as sources of medicine<br>(Marjorie, 1999).<br>In an effort to find alternative sources of feedstuffs to replace some or all of the<br>maize in the diet of pigs and other non-ruminant farm animals, several studies have been<br>conducted to determine the suitability of some agro-industrial wastes as feed ingredients.<br>These include cocoa pod husks, brewers spent grains, rice bran, maize bran, groundnut<br>skins, and wheat bran. However, one by-product that requires consideration is cashew nut<br>testa, a by-product obtained from the processing of cashew nuts. Its utilization as animal<br>feed even at relatively low dosage formulations will minimize its disposal problem as<br>well as reduce the cost of animal feeding.</p><p>1.2 Statement of the Problem<br>It is now known that agricultural materials are used as animal feeds and that they<br>contain phytochemicals. These phytochemicals serve as antibiotic principles of plants.<br>3<br>The need for a cheap, renewable, easily available and nutritive source of material<br>as feed supplements has therefore attracted me to investigate African pear leaf, (APL) as<br>an alternative.<br>1.3 Objectives of the Study<br>Broadly stated, the purpose of this work is to investigate/assess the nutritive and<br>medicinal values of African pear leaf as an effective replacement in animal diets.<br>Specifically, this work investigated:<br>(i) the proximate constituents of African pear leaf; and<br>(ii) the qualitative and quantitative phytochemicals of African pear leaf.</p> <br><p></p>