Abstract

Phytochemical screening of twenty-two medicinal plants distributed in fifteen different famsilies were carried out in order to evaluate the secondary metabolites in them, while their ethnomedicinal significance was gathered through secondary data mining. It was discovered that alkaloids, tannins and saponins were present in all. Flavonoids was absent only in Peperomia pellucida; five out of these plants lack terpenes, ten of them have steroids; eleven of them have cardiac glycosides while only four of these twenty-two have phlobatannins. The ethnomedicinal uses of these selected plants was widely ranged, from arthritis, inflammations, eye problems, respiratory problems, piles, fever, urinary problems, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases, stomach problems, to jaundice and many other human disease conditions. Cissus aralioides was found to test positive to all the 8 phytochemicals evaluated, while majority of the rest possess between 5 and 7 phytochemicals. The significance of phytochemical screening for bioprospecting was discussed