Phytochemical Profile and Cytotoxicity of Adansonia digitata and Borerria verticillata Root Extracts

Adansonia digitata and Borerria verticillata are medicinal plants used to treat different types of diseases. The aim of this study was to extract and screen the roots of both plants for phytochemical constituents, to access their cytotoxicity using Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay and to determine the functional groups present in them by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technique. The method of cold maceration was used for the extraction. The extracts were subjected to phytochemical screening to determine the classes of secondary metabolites present in the plant materials. The Brine Shrimp Lethality Assay (BSLA) was carried out to observe the cytotoxic effect of the extracts and were analyzed for characteristic functional groups using Fourier Transmission Infra-red (FTIR) spectrophotometry. Both root extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, phenols, glycosides, saponins, steroids and reducing sugars while there was absence of flavonoids in both and terpenoids in B. verticillata root extract. The result of BSLA revealed LC50 values of 94.984µg/ml and 0.246µg/ml for ADR and BVR respectively. FTIR spectroscopic investigation showed the presence of 13 and 15 characteristic peak values with different useful mixtures of 12 functional groups. An intense peak of 2002cm-1 and 2005 cm-1 for BVR and ADR respectively were observed in the FTIR spectra which corresponds to carboxylic acid groups. The results indicated the presence of potent cytotoxic, bioactive and probably anti-tumor components of these plants. Thus, the results of the study highlight the ethnotherapeutic importance of Adansonia digitata and Borerria verticillata roots