Abstract

THE AMINO ACID PROFILE OF THREE ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS MEDICINAL PLANTS, CHRYSOPHYLLUM ALBIDUM G.DON, MEZONEURON BENTHAMIANUM BAILL, PHYLLANTHUS MUELLERIANUS (KUNTZE) EXELL, FROM SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Morufu Adisa Ademoye*, Labunmi Lajide and Bodunde Joseph Owolabi

ABSTRACT

The amino acids content of cotyledonous seeds of Chrysophyllum albidum, leaves of Mezoneuron benthamianum and leaves of Phyllanthus muellerianus were analyzed by extraction and gc-ms analysis of derivatized amino acids extracts. The results showed the medicinal plants contained eight essential amino acids (phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine and lysine), six conditionally essential amino acids (histidine, arginine, cystine, glycine, proline and tyrosine) and four non-essential amino acids (alanine, serine, aspartate and glutamate). For the essential amino acids, the highest concentration is leucine (7.74 g/ 100 g) in C. albidum, lysine (7.07 g/ 100 g) in M. benthamianum and valine (7.39g/100 g) in P. muellerianus. For the conditionally essential amino acids, the highest concentration is arginine (8.02 g/ 100 g) in C. albidum, proline (6.73 g/100 g) in M. benthamianum and arginine (5.49 g/ 100 g) in P. muellerianus. The highest concentration of non-essential amino acid is glutamate in the three medicinal plants: 18.50 g/ 100 g in C. albidum, 13.50 g/ 100 g in M. benthamianum and 14.50 g/ 100g in P. muellerianus. The extracts from the C. albidum cotyledonous seed part, leaves of M. benthamianum and leaves of P. muellerisnus had earlier been reported to show antimycobacterium tuberculosis activity. The amino acid profile of these plants was examined as under-nutrition is considered a risk factor in tuberculosis infection. The three medicinal plants are rich in amino acids that could at least ameliorate the risk of under-nutrition in active TB patients, help in immune-responses and possibly enhance the mycobactricidal activity of the antitubercular agents present in the plants.

Keywords: Amino acids, antimycobacterium tuberculosis, undernutrition, immune responses.