The Phytochemical and Structural Make-Up of Regrown and Original Tree Barks Used in Ethnomedicine

The increasing consumption of Phytomedicine in Nigeria has led to a continuous use of plant parts. There is therefore an uncontrolled harvesting of plant parts from the wild. There are many trees showing various degrees of debarking while some regrown barks were equally re-debarked. The pattern of debarking and regrowth and its implication on the quality of tree barks in phytomedicine and the danger it poses has not yet been evaluated. This study was therefore, undertaken to compare the phytochemical and structural make-up of both the initial and regrown tree barks of some plant species that were frequently debarked for various phytomedicinal purposes following standard methods. The primary formed bark and regrown bark screened for phytochemicals viz., alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, saponins, steroids, terpenes, coumarins, mucilage and combined anthracene derivatives showed the presence of these phytochemicals at various degrees for a particular bark type and plant species. Among the studied plants, there was none of the primary formed and regrown barks that had the same set of phytochemicals. Difference were observed in the type of phytochemical present in the bark type. Khaya senegalensis had the most varied phytochemicals in the original and regrown barks, followed by Alstonia boonei while Mangifera indica had the least. It was however, observed that tannin was present in all the tree bark categories tested while cyanogenic derivatives were absent in all the bark samples. It was noted that the presence of some phytochemicals found in some original barks were absent in the regrown. In the least, a few secondary metabolites found absent in the original barks, were present in the regrown tree barks.