Pharmacognostic Investigation Of Dried Powdered Leaves Of Traditional Medicinal Plant Microdesmis Puberula Used For Stopping Excessive Bleeding Of Women During Menstruation In Sierra Leone

Pharmacognostic investigation was carried out on dried powdered Leaves of traditional medicinal plant Microdesmis puberula used for stopping excessive bleeding of women during menstruation in Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The powdered stem bark was found to be dark green in colour with a characteristic grass flavour and bitter taste indicating that the plant organ investigated contained alkaloids. Some constituents gave fluorescence colour changes with the reagents 1M NaOHaq. 1M NaOHalc. Ammonia 50 HCl and 50 HNO3. Fluorescence analysis has been reported to be one of the parameters for pharmacognostic evaluation of crude drugs in traditional medicinal plants. The results phytochemical screening indicates that carbohydrates alkaloid flavonoids tannins proteins sterolsterpenes and saponins are present in the ethanol methanol and aqueous extracts. The petroleum ether and acetone extracts gave the least concentration of the phytoconstituents investigated. The detection of the above secondary plant metabolites support the use of the plant in traditional medicine Elemental analysis on the dried powdered Leaves of Microdesmis puberula was performed with a Niton XL3t GOLD Hand held X-ray Fluorescence Thermo Fisher. The Niton Hand held XRF Instrument uses Ag-anode X-ray tube with a voltage of 50kV and equipped with a Si-drift detector SDD. Accurate energy and efficiency calibrations of the spectrometer were made using a certified reference material SRM 1573a Tomato Leaves supplied by the International Energy Agency IAEA Vienna Austria. The spectrum acquisition time was 480sec for the sample and the dead time was around 50. A total of fifteen elements K Ca Mg Al Ti V Mn Fe Cu Zn Rb Sr Zr Mo and Sc were investigated using EDXRF. The results indicated that plant organ contained large amounts of nutrients and were rich in K 31614 178.00 ppm Ca 10872 147.00 ppm Mg 8122 1434.00ppm Al 5727 258.00 ppm and Fe 2670.7 25.46ppm. The other elements present in smaller quantities were Ti 875 21.00 ppm Zr 129.36 1.29 ppm Mn 126.34 13.31 ppm Zn 119.53 .33ppm Sr 68.88 0.94ppm Sc 68.00 12.00ppm Rb 45.01 1.00 ppm Cu 23.57 4.46ppm V 11.99 7.50 ppm and Mo 4.46 0.81ppm. The presence of potassium iron calcium and magnesium in the dried powdered Leaves of Microdesmis puberula plant also support the use of the plant in controlling excessive blood loss during menstruation in women.