Asian Journal of Research in Botany

Herbal treatment is cheap when compared to conventional medicine; this has resulted in an increased demand for herbal remedies worldwide leading to realization of enhanced new drugs. The  bio-activity  in  natural  products  is  due  to phytochemicals, often elaborated for the plant defense  against   pathogen  attack, inter-plant  competition  and  against  abiotic stresses. Piliostigma thonningii  is used for various medicinal purposes in African and attention was drawn to this plant because of several claims on its  enormous applications  as an  ethnomedicinal  plant  used  to  cure  several  diseases. This study was conducted to extract the phytochemical compounds from plant parts of Piliostigma thoninngii. Maceration method of extraction was used to extract the phytochemical compounds from the plant parts (leaf, stem bark, and root bark) using ethanol and aqueous as extracting solvent. The phytochemical tests were conducted using standard conventional methods. The phytocompound tested were alkaloid, Saponin, Steroid, Tanin, Flavoniod, Anthraquinones and Triterpenoids. Result of the phytochemical test showed the absent of saponins and anthraquinones in leaf aqueous extract and also saponin and triterpenoids in ethanol extract, while the stem and root bark of Piliostigma thonningii showed the absent of steroid, flavonoids and anthraquinones on aqueous extract while triterpenoids was absent in ethanol extracts. Piliostigma thonningii is a small tree or shrub which has many uses as it is used in traditional medicine, and modern medical research has found that they have beneficial properties. This study revealed that Piliostigma thonningii is a plant with available phytochemical compound which can be harness for modern drug design.