CHAPTER ONE
1:0 INTRODUCTION
1:1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Plants which are medicinal and used by animals as foods have contributed immensely to health care (Chineke et al., 2006). These medicinal plants include Piper guineense, Gnetum gnemon, Congrema latifolium, Azadirachta indica, Moringa orifera, and so on have been used in biological researches for aims of analysis or otherwise. Piper guineenseis of the plant family Piperaceae and contains over 700 species all over the globe. It is a medicinal plant known to provide both medicinal, insecticidal, culinary and dietary benefits to human beings. According to Dada et al., (2013)
Piper guineense is a local spice that comprises of dillapiol, 5-8% piperine, elemicine, 10% of myristicine and safrole. The effects of these local spice is associated with the presence of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, glycosides, essential oils, peptides and phenols. Conclusively, Piper guineense is recommended for use in phytomedicine and can be of immense importance in health care especially in the developing countries.
Haematology refers to the study of the constituents of blood and its morphology. It can also be referred to as the study of the changes in some blood indices due the effect of some environmental or chemical substances (Howlett and Jaime, 2008). Hence, haematological parameters are the features, indices, or characteristics relating to blood. Otherwise they are called indices of blood characterization which include haemoglobin, red blood cells, packed cell volume, mean cell volume, mean cell haemoglobin, mean cell haemoglobin count, white blood cells and platelets. The study of these parameters is of ecological and physiological interest (Ovuru and Ekweozor, 2004).
1:2 AIM
This work was designed to study the effect of methanol extract of Piper guineense on the level of haematological parameter in alcohol (kaikai) 30% v/v exposed Wistar rats.
1.3 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
• To measure the effect of the methanol extract of Piper guineense on haematological parameters in alcohol (kaikai) 30% v/v exposed Wistar rats.
WHAT IS PIPER QUINEENSE:
Over
the year, plant extract such as those from
P. guineense, Gnetum gnemon
(ukazi), Gongronema latifolium (utazi),
Azadirachta indica (neem), Cymbopogon spp (lemon plant), and plant-derived medicines have contributed immensely to the
overall health and well-being of human beings. (Anyanwu and Nwosu 2014). We
agree that the medicines developed from plant are comparably safer than their
synthetic counterpart thus rendering enormous therapeutic benefits at an
economical treatment (Kareem et al.,
2010).
Piper guineense is
of the family of Piperaceae and
contains over 900 species all over the world. It is a medicinal plant known to
provide both medicinal, insecticidal, culinary and dietary benefits to human
beings. Piper guineense is a West
African species of pepper and it is obtained from its dried fruit referred to
as ‘Uziza’ pepper, West African pepper, Kale, Guinea cubeb, Ashanti pepper, Guinea
pepper, Kukauabe, Benin pepper. This has a resemblance with cubeb pepper and
long pepper. According to Dada et al;
(2013). Piper guineense is a local
spice that comprises of dillapiol, 5-8% of piperine, elemicine, 10% of
myristicine and safrole. Its effects have been associated with the presence of
phytonutrient such as flavonoids, alkaloids, glycosides, essential oils,
tannins, saponins, peptides and phenols in this spectacular plant (Kareem et al., 2010).
Piper guineense
leaves are aseptic in nature, helping to relieve flatulence. They are also
useful for treating intestinal diseases, cough, bronchitis and rheumatism.
According to research carried out by (Nwachukwu et al;, 2010) on the uses of some medicinal plants, it was found that
Piper guineese is suitable for treating
infertility in women and low sperm count in men. The infertility problem can be
solved by boiling leaves of Piper
guineese (uziza) together with Xylopia
species (uda), lime juice, honey, Gongronema
latifolium (utazi) and Capsicum
species pepper in 1L of water and then take 1glass cup on a daily basis
only during menstruation. Men on the other hand can take ½ bottle of lime juice
mixed with 1 bottle of honey and taken 1 shot twice on daily basis for low
sperm count treatment (Agbora et al.,
2010).
READ: REASONS YOU SHOULD PASSWORD YOUR DEVICES
2.1 BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION
Piper guineense has the following hierarchial classification.
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Mangnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Piperales
Family: Piperaceae
Genus: Piper
Species: P. guineense
Binomial name: Piper guineense
Synonyms: Piper clusii (Agbora et al., 2010)
2.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF PIPER GUINEENSE (UZIZA)
Piper guineense which is also known as West African pepper, Ashanti pepper, Benin pepper, false cubebs, guinea cubebs, uziza pepper or ambiguously Guinea pepper called locally kale, kukauzabe, masoro, sasem and sorowisa, is West African spice that correspond to the dried fruit of Piper guineense (Ngono et al., 2003). The plants that provide Ashanti pepper are climbing vines that grows up to 20m in length. These are native to tropical regions of central and western African and are semi-cultivated in countries such as Nigeria where the leaves are used as a flavouring for stews and soaps (Chineke et al., 2006).
In terms of flavour, Ashanti pepper is very similar to cubeb pepper but it is much less bitter and has a fresher more herbaceous flavour. Though known in Europe during the middle age (it was common in Roven and Dieppen in 14th century France), these days the use is marginalized of west and central African countries (Nwachukwu et al., 2010).
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