Evaluation of Extractive Values, Qualitative and Quantitative Phytochemical Constituents of Red Soko (Celosia Trigyna) and Green Soko (Celosia argentea)

Medicinal plants are indispensable sources of bioactive compounds and have proved to be stalwart ingredients for a wide range of applications. The potency of five different solvents in extracting bioactive constituents; qualitative and quantitative determination of phytochemicals of red soko and green soko were studied. The plant were cut into smaller pieces, air-dried, ground into powdery sample, sieved with 40 mm mesh size and properly labelled. Each sample was extracted using five different solvents (acetone, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and water) at ratio 1: 10 for 72 h. Each solvent extract was screened for nine phytochemicals (flavonoid, carotenoid, phenol, oxalate, tannin, saponin, alkaloid, phytate and ascorbic acid). It was observed that the plant extract contained seven phytochemicals in both red and green soko. The highest extractive values and qualitative screening of phytochemicals in red soko and green soko were obtained in water and methanol extracts. Quantitative phytochemical analysis showed that there was higher content of saponin, phytate and ascorbic acid in the two vegetables. Red soko contained lower ascorbic acid, saponin, total phenol, total carotenoid, alkaloid and flavonoid than green soko while green soko had lower phytate and tannin than red soko. There was no significant difference (P˂0.05) in flavonoids, total carotenoid and alkaloid contents in red soko and in green soko there was no significant difference (P˂0.05) in total carotenoid and alkaloid contents.