Comparative chemistry of COA® herbal medicine and herbal extracts of azadirachta indica and carica papaya.

Abstract

Natural products have indeed endowed man with a variety of efficacious benefit combinations which can be dated to origin of the universe. The essence of herbs in the mitigation of human indisposition cannot be overstressed. The plant kingdom is believed to be a dockyard of never-ending genesis of active compounds paramount for the prophylaxis and mitigation of countless communicable and non-communicable disease conditions of mankind. Orthodox therapeutic substances used for basic medical care necessity, in recent times, have caught the attention of researchers; the rationale for this may be explained by the increased use of chemically derived therapeutic agents having adverse effects and negative clinical outcomes. This has seen the good turn of people to natural products such as COA® herbal medicine produced in Ghana and used by people in South Africa. However, the phytochemistry of COA® herbal medicine may not be well known. This study was aimed to establish the differences and similarities of phytochemical compounds found in COA® herbal medicine and two of its constituent plants (Azadirachta indica and Carica papaya Linn.) collected in Cape Coast (Ghana), Durban and Port Shepstone (South Africa). Method An experimental study was conducted in the pharmaceutical chemistry laboratory, discipline of pharmaceutical sciences, School of Health Sciences and in the chemistry laboratory, School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu – Natal. A phytochemical screening and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) were carried out using hexane, ethanol, ethyl acetate and dichloromethane extracts to establish the similarities and disparities between the COA® herbal medicine and leaf extracts of Azadirachta indica and Carica papaya Linn. collected in Ghana and South Africa. The mass spectra of the compounds found in the analyzed extracts were matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library. Results The results of the phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, terpenoids and steroids, cardiac glucosides. GC–MS results revealed the presence of common phytochemical compounds such as Phyto acetate, Octadecanoic acid, Pentadecanoic acid, Stigmast-5-en-3-ol, Stigmast-5,22-dien-3-ol, in COA® herbal medicine and leaf extracts of Azadirachta indica and Carica papaya Linn. collected in Ghana and South Africa. However, this study confirmed the differences in phytochemical compounds from leaf extracts of Azadirachta indica and Carica papaya Linn. collected in Ghana and South Africa. Conclusion This study found that there were similarities between COA® herbal medicine and leaf extracts of Azadirachta indica and Carica papaya Linn. However, differences in phytochemical compounds were observed between leaf extracts of Azadirachta indica and Carica papaya Linn. collected in Ghana and South Africa.