Momordica foetida phytochemical screening

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Bioactive plants are commonly used by traditional healers or in folklore

medicines for the relief of pain or some alignments. This act of medication has

made some plant families popular (Heinrich 2000; Kuete et al., 2006).The

acceptance of traditional medicine as an alternative form of health care has assisted

scientists in elevating these claims, by studying the chemical composition and

biological potential (Bisignano et al., 1996; Hammer et al., 1999). This has led to

the advent of new drugs in the market.

In the last decades, the pharmaceutical industry has been faced with an

influx of drug-resistance pathogens in treating infectious diseases (Hugo and

Russel, 1984). The increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the

side effects of some known drugs has aroused the interest of scientist in tapping

bioactive plants to control and cure some of the global infections (Hostettmann and

Hamburger, 1991).

Nigeria and South Africa is a country with great cultural diversity and

biodiversity, with many people still using a wide variety of plants in medicine and

other necessities of life (Van Wyk and Gericke, 2000)

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