ANALYSIS OF BIOCHEMICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL COMPONENTS OF PAPAYA, ALMOND AND MANGO LEAVES

The chemical compositions of pawpaw (Carica papaya), african almond (Terminalia catappa) and mango (Mangifera indica) leaves were determined to assess their potential economic values. Samples of young and matured leaves were harvested randomly from the fruit trees and examined in triplicates by proximate analysis and by spectrophotometry. The highest dry matter (DM) content (94.82%) was found in matured mango leaf (MML), while least (92.53%) was recorded in young papaya leaf (YPL). The differences in ash content of leaves were not significant (p> 0.05) between the species and between matured and young leaf samples; whereas significant differences (p<0.05) were recorded for crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), crude fibre (CF) and the nitrogen free extracts (NFE). All the leaves contained Ca, Na, K, P and Mg in variable amounts. Phytochemicals present were alkaloids, saponin, tannin, phenol and flavonoid, of these, the most critical was alkaloid which ranged in value from 2.623 to 5.54. Saponin content ranged from 0.210-3.147, tannin levels were between 0.206 - 0.605, phenol ranged from 0.317 - 2.207 while flavonoid 0.910 - 2.357 for every g/100gDM. The potentials of the leaves in ethno-medicine was recommended.