Abstract

PHYTOMEDICINAL POTENTIALS OF SPECIES OF NEPHROLEPIS (SCHOTT.)

M. E. Bassey, I. I. Johnny, O. T. Umoh* and F.T. Douglas

Abstract

Natural products have played vital roles in health care for decades. Of the different sources of natural products, plants have been a source of chemical substances which serve as drugs in their own right or key ingredients in formulations containing synthetic drugs. Nephrolepis is a genus of about thirty (30) species of ferns which are distributed in many parts of the world. Phytochemical screening indicated the presence of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, saponins and cardiac glycosides, while alkaloids and phlobatannins were completely absent in all the three species. Antinutrients such as hydrocyanide, tannin, oxalate and phytic acid were found to be present in the plants, and their concentrations were all within the permissible levels, apart from oxalates which exceeded the permissible level in Nephrolepis exaltata (L.) Schott. Anatomical investigations in the three species of Nephrolepis ((Nephrolepis biserrata (Sw.) Schott, Nephrolepis exaltata and Nephrolepis undulata (Afzel. ex Sw.) J. Sm.)) showed that stomatal types were, Diacytic, Anisocytic, Anomocytic and Anomalous. Epidermal cell walls were undulating in all the three species studied. Unicellular and multicellular types of trichomes were found in N. biserrata but trichomes were absent in N. exaltata and N. undulata. The micromeritric study of the three species of Nephrolepis showed that they all had fair flowing properties. The phytochemical contents and the anatomical results show similarities in the plants. It is recommended that further studies should be carried out on species of Nephrolepis and other ferns in general in order to deternine their potential uses in phytomedicine.

Keywords: Micrometry, Nephrolepis, Phytochemicals, Phytomedicine, Stomata, Trichomes.