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Research Details

Research Title Screening and Evaluation of Indigenous Plants for Health and Other Applications
Researcher(s) Maingeline Vivit, Menisa Antonio, Cecile Gaoat
Research Category Project
Research Status completed
Duration Feb 13, 2017 to Mar 01, 2020
Commodity Industrial Energy
Research Site(s) Tuklas Lunas Development Center
Source of Fund(s) GAA-Fund 101
Brief Description
Many Ilocanos depend on a variety of indigenous plants to supplement their diet. To support their use for food and medicine, phytochemical screening was done in an earlier study and showed the presence of alkaloids, coumarins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, terpenoids and xanthoproteins in the ethanol crude extracts of edible parts. The presence of such phytochemicals suggests that the indigenous plants could help consumers maintain a healthy body. These could also be an indicative on some of their folkloric uses. According to Sahu, Kar and Routray (2013) indigenous vegetables are good source of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. Moreover, many are known to provide medicinal properties like anti-diabetic, anticarcinogenic, hypolipidemic, antibacterial and antioxidant activities. However, there has no analysis yet on these plant materials grown and sampled in the province.

In this project, 10 indigenous plants (1 tuber and 9 vegetables) have been selected based on their phytochemical constituents reported as well as their popularity as food. The following are Allaenthus luzonicus (himbabao/alokon); Champereia manillana (apeng), Dioscorea esculenta var. spinosa (buga), Momordica cochinchinensis (sugudsugud), Poikilospermum. suaveolens (sarsarapa), Solanum pimpinellifolium (botbotinis), Telosma procumbens (kapaskapas) and Tetrastigma harmandii (ariwat). The in-vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the mentioned species will be conducted in order to determine their potential not only as healthy food but also as medicine. The phytochemical constituents like phenolic compounds and flavonoids will be quantified in order to correlate with the biological activities to be tested.

Methodology:

A. Collection of plant samples

B. Sample processing and preparation of extracts

C. Study 1: Quantitative Phytochemical Analysis of Indigenous Vegetables

  • Determination of total phenolic content
  • Determination of total flavonoid content
D. Study 2: In-vitro Antioxidant Activity of the Indigenous Food Plants
  • In vitro antioxidant activity
 E. Study 3: Antimicrobial screening of the Indigenous Food Plants
  • Test organisms
  • Sensitivity test
F. Statistical Analysis
 
Plan of Work (Phases):
  1. Collection of samples; Propagation and maintenance of plant species possible to grow at the IFP botanical garden
  2. Sample processing
  3. Preparation of crude extracts
  4. Optimization of protocol
  5. Phytochemical analysis
  6. In-vitro antioxidant activity assay
  7. Antibacterial testing
  8. Antifungal testing
  9. Data collation and analyses; discussion; and interpretation of results
Expected Output
  1. Information on the health potential of the selected indigenous plants especially when the samples are processed to boiled, steamed and dried
  2. Journal article on the health benefits of the selected indigenous plants
  3. Preliminary data for possible product formulation
Abstract Not Available