Botanical Survey and Phytochemical Screening of Medicinal Plants used by Traditional Healers in Aurora, Zamboanga Del Sur, Philippines

The documentation of medicinal plants is an important baseline for possible extraction, isolation, characterization, and chemical modification of important active cellular chemical contents. This study aims to determine the qualitative phytochemical screening of medicinal plants used by traditional healers in Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. A total of 34 medicinal plants were mentioned by five traditional healers, who willingly shared their knowledge on medicinal plants. These plant species were collected and came from 23 families. The greater number of plant species was represented by families of Poaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Lamiaceae, and Asteraceae with three species each, followed by Malvaceae, Compositae, and Leguminosae with two species each, and the rest of the families were represented by only one species each. In this study, qualitative phytochemical analysis of five selected medicinal plants clearly reveals the medically active cellular phytoconstituents such as terpenoids, anthraquinones, phenols, and saponins that were present in Stachytarpheta jamaicensis, Jatropha gossypiifolia, Impatiens balsamina, Phyllanthus urinaria, and Pseudelephantopus spicatus leaves. These medicinal plants appeared to be rich in chemical contents, widely used in traditional medicine to combat and cure various ailments. The anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antimalarial, antiparasitic, antianalgesic and antioxidant can be attributed to the high anthraquinones, phenols, terpenoids and saponins in the leaves of the five medicinal plants. However, the presence of phytoconstituents like terpenoids, anthraquinones, phenols and saponins should take note importantly by the traditional healers or even community in order to have a better understanding on how the plants combat and cure the specific ailments. Furthermore, the study recommends that all medicinal plants should take care of and the future researchers conduct more studies on phytochemical screening of medicinal plants for better understanding on when and how to use different medicinal plants to treat different ailments.