A Study on the Checklist of Plants and their Phytochemical Contents from Ugwuto Forest in Nsude, Enugu State

Background and Objective: The plant diversity of the Ugwuto forest is made up of so many forms of plants. The plants range from lower plants such as Marchantia to higher plants like Daniellia oliveri. The objective of this study was to as certain plant types in the Ugwuto forest and their phytochemical composition. Materials and Methods: Quadrat was thrown at the foot and the peak of the forest for the selection of the herbs. The aerial observation was used to select the trees and climbers. A total of 126 plants were collected from the forest while nineteen of these plants were analyzed for different phytochemicals. The Completely Randomized Design was used for this study. Results: The plants studied fell under 42 different families. The result of phytochemical analysis of the leaves of the nineteen plants studied revealed that A. boonei had the highest composition of the alkaloid (33.900±0.000%), A. Africana had the highest percentage composition of saponin (2.207±0.000), steroid content was highest in A. conyzoides (2.127±0.006), M. lucida had the highest composition of phenol (50.967±0.058) and glycoside was highest in the leaf of O. celtidifolia (16.16±0.058). Conclusion: All the plants studied are the reservoir of many useful phytochemicals especially alkaloids are at is found in the plants. This suggests that these plants can be used by the pharmaceutical industries for producing drugs that will be effective in the cure of different ailments and disorders.