Author(s):

Ikpefan, E.O*, Fajana A and Olowojoba J.

Abstract: Research into medicinal plants used in treating tumor-related ailments has become imperative due to the emergence of various forms of cancer diseases. Tridax procubens is one of such medicinal plants indicated in traditional herbal medicine as one of the plants used in treating tumor-related ailments. This claim was examined using bench-top assay methods involving the cytotoxicity of the methanol extract of the plant to tadpoles of Raniceps ranninus for a period of 24 hr at concentrations between 10-400 µg/ml and the growth inhibitory assay between 1-30 µg/ml. After 24 h, the crude methanol extract and the chloroform fraction produced the highest cytotoxicity of 63.33 ± 1.33 and 100 % respectively at 400 μg/ml. On the growth inhibitory assay, after 96 h, the controls had an average length of 58.12 ± 5.68 mm, whereas the seeds treated with 30mg/ml of the crude extract had an average length of 1.63 ± 0.32 mm, indicating 97.19 % reduction in length. At the same concentration, the chloroform and the aqueous fractions showed 86.58 and 100 % inhibitions. The plant material was observed to contain tannins, saponins and flavonoids, cardiac glycosides and anthraquinone. The result of this work supports the ethno-medicinal use of the plant in preparing recipes for tumor-related ailments.

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