Full Project – Phytochemicals and minerals analysis of rosary pea (Abrus Precatorious leaves)

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CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Abrus precatorius L known as “Idon Zakara” in Hausa is indigenous to India. It is commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions. It grows wild in thickets, farms, secondary clearings and sometimes in hedges. It is most common in rather dry areas at low elevation throughout the tropics and subtropics and is known as rosary pea (Boericke et al, 2004). The name Abrus, meaning beautiful or graceful, is used to describe the appearance of the seed (Meena et al., 2004). Other names include prayer bean, Crab’s eye, Indian liquorice, Ratti, jequerity pea, precatory beans, jumble beans, saga-saga, and lucky beans (Rohne et al, 1983). It belongs to the family Fabaceae. Abrus is a genus of 13 to 18 species (Rohne et al., 2004). Synonyms include Abrus aureus (Madagascar), Abrus baladensis (Somalia), Abrus canescens, Rhynchosia precatoria, Abrus madagascariensis (Madagascar), Abrus parvifolius (Madagascar), Abrus pulchellus (Africa), Abrus sambiranensis (Madagascar), Abrus schimperi (Africa), Abrus somalensis (Somalia), Abrus wittei (Zaire) among others (Boericke et al, 2004). Some species of the genus Abrus are as shown in the Leaves resemble tamarind leaves having 20-40 leaflets and the plant is described as beautiful, much branched, slender, perennial, deciduous, woody, prickly twinning or climbing herb (Pfander et al., 2004). The leaves have been used as food and as medicine. It is commonly chewed or sucked to obtain its sweet taste (Kennelly et al., 1996). It is also reportedly boiled with food for example, cereal pulp, as a sweetener and even as a vegetable. Also, fresh leaves have been reportedly pressed on the gum for sores in the mouth and used in many countries in preparations for skin cancer (Duke et al, 2000). A. precatorius leaves have also been used in Nigeria for the treatment of many diseases including malaria, typhoid, cough, respiratory tract infections and hepatitis (Saganuwan et al., 2001). The medicinal properties are attributed to several bioactive phytoconstituents, including albrin which is poisonous (Reedman et al., 2008). This article seeks to provide update on the ethnomedicinal applications, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Abrus precatorius toward identification of further research directions, among others.

Source: Medicinal Plants of Tropical West Africa. B. Oliver-Bever. Pub. Cambridge University Press (1986) UK

Geographical distribution

Abrus precatorius is a plant that originates from Southeast Asia and is native to India. It is found in subtropical areas of the world and in all tropical countries. It grows at altitudes up to 1200 m on the outer Himalayas. It is a common plant in Nigeria

Taxonomic Description

The taxonomic description of Abrus precatorius

Taxonomic description of A.precatorius Kingdom	Plantae
Division	Magnoliophyta
Class	Magnoliopsida
Order	Fabales
Family	Fabaceae
Subfamily	Faboideae
Tribe	Abreae
Genus	Abrus
Species	Abrus precatorius Linn.

Morphological description (botanical description)

Abrus precatorius is an ornamental, twining, woody vine which grows to a height of 10 to 20 feet when supported by other plants. Leaves are alternate, compound, feather-like, innately divided, with small oblong leaflets 3. The branches are greenish yellow in colour. The Flowers are numerous and appear in the leaf axils along the stems. They are small and occur in clusters 1 to 3 inches long, usually red to purple, or occasionally white. The fruit is a legume (pea shaped pod) about 3 cm long containing hard ovoid seeds (shiny, scarlet and black in colour) about 1 cm long. The seeds are red with a black spot covering one end. The root is woody, tortuous and much branched, with a sweet taste, rather like liquorice (Solanki et al, 2012). The leaves are used for their anti-suppurative properties. In addition, the leaves are often used as a substitute for liquorice and are useful in leucoderma, itching and other skin diseases. The decoction is widely used for cough, cold and colic; Decoction of dried root is used to treat bronchitis and hepatitis (Arora et al., 2011). For graying of hair, a paste of leaves and seeds is applied (Narendra et al, 2014). The juice is employed as a cure for hoarseness; mixed with oil, it can be applied to painful swelling (Adelowotan et al., 2008). A. precatorius is known to be useful in treatment of schistosomiasis (Acharya et al., 2004).

Ethnomedicinal uses

All parts of Abrus precatorius are used in traditional medicine practice including the dried red-black colored seeds, leaves and roots (Narendra et al, 2014). The plant is used in traditional medicine to treat scratches, sores and wounds caused by dogs, cats and mice (Chinnappan et al., 2002 ) and are also used with other ingredients to treat leucoderma, tetanus and rabies (Narendra et al, 2014). The leaves are used as nerve tonic (Elisabetsky et al., 1992 ), applied on cuts and swellings and mouth ulcer . The roots are used for gonorrhea, jaundice and haemoglobinuric bile (Narendra et al, 2014). The fixed oil extracted from seeds is said to promote the growth of human hair (Narendra et al, 2014). The seed oil has potent antimicrobial activity (Adelowotan et al., 2008). The powdered seeds are also useful in tuberculous painful swellings (Chinnappan et al., 2002 ).

1.1 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This work is focused basically on the following

Determination of the phytochemical composition of Abrus precatorious leaves.
Determination of the mineral composition of Abrus precatorious leaves.

The objective of this work was to suggest the effect of the leaves on human health, the possible fields or industries in which these leaves can be properly utilized based on the result and information provide in the literature of the analysis of Abrus precatorious leaves.

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Medicinal plants have constituted the source of health care all over the world since time immemorial and have thus remain the mainstay of drug discovery (Beyene et al, 2016) this is believed to be as a result of the presence of certain plant chemicals (phytochemicals). Phytochemicals which may also be referred to as phytochemicals are present in diverse kinds of plants which are consumed as essential components of both human and animal diet where they have marked physiological effects (Kamba et al, 2010). It is generally believed that the medicinal value of plants is due to some plant secondary metabolites that produce certain physiological action in human body. The bioactive substances of note in plants are alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, saponins and phenolic compounds (Veeramuth et al, 2006) these active substances, alongside the vitamins and minerals have been widely reported to contribute to their various physiologic and protective effects (Okwu et al, 2003). Other important classes of phytonutrients present in plants are the minerals. Minerals are considered as an element that possesses specific metabolic functions, some of which are present in diverse range of medicinal plants.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study was the phytochemical and mineral analysis of Abrus precatorious leaves. .

To suggest the effect of the leaves on human health, the possible fields or industries in which these leaves can be properly utilized based on the result and information provide in the literature of the analysis of Abrus precatorious leaves.

To know some contents on this leaves for curable for these particular leaves Abrus precatorious in other to provide first-hand information for researchers, producers, marketing entrepreneurs and the consumers, which will in turn boost medicine and improve the human health.

1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Abrus precatorious rosary leaves. (Edmund et al, 2014) (Abrus precatorious) is a plant from Leguminosae family having slender, perennial climber that twines around trees. It is a legume with long, pinnate. It is popularly known as (Abrus precatorious) Crabs eye, Rosary pea, Precatory pea or bean, Indian licorrice. (Edmund et al, 2014). The plant best known for its seeds, used in percussion instruments. The seeds of Abrus are very similar in weight in older times called as Ratti Indians used to it generally to measure gold and 1 Tola. (Shourie et al, 2013) The seeds contain active principal Abrin‟ resembling to viperine snake venom. The roots of Abrus contain 1.5 % substances resembling glycyrrhizin and leaves also yields glycyrrhizin. As the needle prepared from Abrus and other drugs used to kill cattle.(Arjun, et al., 2018) hence, it is famous as cattle poison. As Abrus also explained shodhan procedure for conversion of any poisonous drug into beneficial, after shodhana. Abrus can use as fungistatic, antibacterial (Zore et al,. 2007), analgesic, antimicrobial (Adelowotan et al., 2008), antimalarial (Saganuwan et al., 2011), hair growth promoting, uterine stimulant, antiproliferative (Gul et al,. 2013), abrotificiant, antihelmintic (Selvadurai et al., 2015), CNS depressant, antitumour, oxytocic antisperatogenic.

The leaves have been used as food and as medicine. It is commonly chewed or sucked to obtain its sweet taste (Kennelly et al., 1996). It is also reportedly boiled with food for example, cereal pulp, as a sweetener and even as a vegetable. Also, fresh leaves have been reportedly pressed on the gum for sores in the mouth and used in many countries in preparations for skin cancer (Duke et al, 2000). A. precatorius leaves have also been used in Nigeria for the treatment of many diseases including malaria, typhoid, cough, respiratory tract infections and hepatitis (Saganuwan et al., 2001). The medicinal properties are attributed to several bioactive phytoconstituents, including albrin which is poisonous (Reedman et al., 2008).

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