Phytochemical profile, proximate composition and utilization of Garcinia Kola in Ikwuano LGA of Abia State, Nigeria

Background: Garcinia kola is utilized locally based on traditional knowledge which is at the risk of being lost due to modern lifestyle necessitating documentation and more research.Objective: To determine the phytochemical profile, proximate composition and utilization of Garcinia kola in Ikwuano LGA of Abia State.Methods: Survey design was adopted for assessment of utilization using questionnaires administered to 156 respondents sampled across Ndoro, Ariam and Oloko strata of Ikwuano via stratified random sampling, while the leaves, barks, roots and seeds were analyzed for phytochemical and proximate composition using standard analytical methods. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and descriptive statistics.Results: Results showed that the highest number of respondents were female (64.1%), married (61.5%), aged 41–50 years (42.3%) and business men/women (51.9%). Meanwhile, the seeds were the most utilized with 100% of the respondents using it for medicinal (80.1%) and other purposes (19.9%); but the majority of the respondents never used the leaves (66.6%), bark (59.6%) and roots (50.6%) for any purpose. The leaves (33.4%) were the least utilized. Results also revealed that the seeds had the highest (p<0.05) moisture (14.76%), and protein (2.89%) while the roots had the highest (p<0.05) fibre (27.06%), ash (3.05%) and fat (6.06%). Only the seeds had all the phytochemicals detected with its flavonoids (2.10 g/100g), saponins (2.13 g/100g) and glycosides (3.26 g/100g) ranking the highest (p<0.05).Conclusion: This study suggests that Garcinia kola particularly the seeds are utilized for various purposes especially medicine as affirmed by their phytochemical composition.