Asian Journal of Advances in Research

Harungana madagascariensis is a plant abundant in several phytochemicals that can be extracted, purified, and packaged for the aim of promoting optimum health of humans. The extraction processes were carried out following standard extraction methods. The fresh leaves of H. madagascariensis were air-dried, milled into coarse powder and macerated in a mixture of methanol and chloroform (2:1) for 48 hours. The solution was filtered and partitioned with distilled water (20%) of the total volume of the filtrate. The upper layer was designated aqueous-methanol extract and the lower layer designated chloroform extract. The aqueous-methanol extract was further fractionated into n-hexane, ethyl-acetate and aqueous-methanol fractions by solvent partitioning using standard protocol. Preliminary phytochemical analyses were conducted which revealed the presence of diverse secondary metabolites including alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, tannins, saponins and terpenoids, steroids in varying concentrations. With the highest concentration of the phytochemical recorded in the aqueous-methanol fraction. The acute toxicity test carried out showed no lethality or behavioural change at 5000mg/kg. The ethyl acetate and aqueous-methanol fractions exhibited better anti-ulcerogenic effect against both indomethacin and aspirin induced gastric ulcer than that obtained for the n-hexane fraction. Comparatively, the aqueous-methanol fraction had the strongest anti-ulcerogenic activity than ethyl-acetate and n-hexane fractions. The results showed that the various fractions had significant anti-ulcer activity and could be used for the effective treatment of ulcer and inflammatory related diseases which could be due to their abundant phytochemical constituents, although the strongest activity was recorded with aqueous-methanol fraction associated with polarity of the solvent.