PHYTOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE NANDI PEOPLE OF KENYA Jeruto Pascaline *, Mutai Charles^ and Ouma George*^ *Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), P.O Box 249 Kitale, Kenya; ^Center for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, P.O. Box , Nairobi, Kenya; *^Department of Botany and Horticulture,Maseno University, P.O. Box 333, Maseno, Kenya

BACKGROUND   Plants useful - food, shelter, clothing, fuel, medicine, crafts, cosmetics, income & employment, Herbal products- spices, tisane, medicinal raw materials, aromatics plants, functional food ingredients, essential oils, flavourings, fragrance products, dietary supplements and ecological balance.   Medicinal value- depends on chemical substance; produces definite physiological effect on the body   Bioactive compounds: alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, phenolics etc.   Natural products research- not yet exhausted (10% plants investigated).   Phytochemical test- patentable & industrially exploitable cpds: drug development.

Materials and methods Field survey Herbarium specimens were collected using standard herbarium techniques, identified at University of Nairobi and confirmed at National Museums of Kenya.   Authentic specimens deposited at the Botanic garden, Maseno university herbarium for future reference.

PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING PLANT COLLECTION   Plants for screening selected based on their high information consensus   Plant parts were collected and treated according to Harborne (1973). PLANT EXTRACTION   They were extracted sequentially using chloroform, methanol then water (Harborne, 1973).   The extracts were run on TLC plates.   Active compounds were observed after applying spraying reagents.

Phytochemical analysis. 1. Crude extract quality   T. asiatica and C. edulis –highest crude extract both in chloroform and methanol solvent.   C. abbysinica and S. princeae had the lowest yield   T. asiastica and C. edulis – High root crude extracts (chloroform & methanol)   Water extracts – C. abbyssinica leaves and E. cymosia roots had highest yield

Quantity of plant root crude extracts Plant species Chloroform extracts (g) Methanol extracts (g) Water extracts (g) Asparagus racemosus Clutia abbysinica C. myricoides Ehretia cymosia Leucas calostachys Toddalia asiatica Rubia cordifolia Spermacoce princeae Carrisa edulis Ajuga remota

Quantity of plant leaves crude extracts Plant species Chlorofor m extracts (g) Methanol extracts (g) Water extracts (g) Asparagus racemosus Clutia abbysinica Clerodendrum myricoides Ehretia cymosia Leucas calostachys Toddalia asiatica Rubia cordifolia Spermacoce princeae Carrisa edulis Ajuga remota

8 Chemical compounds analysis  Alkaloids and terpernoids occurred in all the cloroform extracts  Phenolics occurred in all methanolic extracts except Ajuga remota.

Qualitative analysis of the phytochemicals of the medicinal roots (a)(b) Chloroform extractsMethanol extracts Plant speciesAlk aloi ds Sap onin s Ant hraq uino nes Glyc osid es Phen olics ) gene ral Terp enoi ds Flav onoi ds Alka loids Sap onin s Ant hraq uino nes Glyc osid es Phen olics) gener al Terp enoi ds Flav onoi ds A. racemosus C.abbysinica C.myricoides E. cymosia L. calostachys T. asiatica R. cordifolia S. princeae C. edulis A. remota Key: + = Presences of constituents; - = Absence of constituents

Conclusion  Presence of phenolic compounds in Ajuga remota validates its medicinal use by the Nandi practitioners.  The plants studied are potential sources of useful drugs.  Further studies recommended - to isolate, identify, characterize and elucidate the structure of the bioactive compounds.  Antimalarial activities of these plants for the treatments of the diseases as claimed by traditional healers - investigated. 10

Acknowledgement  People of Nandi for sharing the indigenous knowledge.  Co-authors for teamwork in writing the paper.  Staff – NMK, UoN, Maseno University. 11

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