Abstract

This study involves the phytochemical screening and ethnomedicinal survey of twenty-three medicinal plants belonging to thirteen families commonly found in Nigeria. Semi-structured interviews and discussions with selected informants were adapted to collect ethnobotanical information on the plants. It was discovered that all of them possess alkaloids, tannins and saponin. Steroid is present in only twelve of the plant species, only five have phlobatannin; terpene is present in twenty of the plants, flavonoid is present in nineteen of the plants, while cardiac glycoside is present in sixteen of the species. Leea guineensis and Uvaria chamae were the only plants among the 23 plant samples that contain all the eight phytochemicals tested. The phytochemical present in the samples were juxtaposed with their ethnomedicinal significance, and from this, several suggestions were deduced on the secondary metabolites responsible for the pharmacological actions of the plants.  Conclusively, it could be said that the ethnomedicinal significance of the selected plants for this study corresponds to the pharmacological actions of the secondary metabolites they contain.

Key words: Phytochemical, ethnomedicinal, medicinal plants, bioprospecting.