1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background
During the past decade, the traditional systems have gained importance in the field of medicine. The World Health Organization estimates that 4 billion people, 80% of the world population (WHO, 2002), presently use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care (Orisataoki and Oguntibeju, 2010). Eighty percent (80%) of African populations use some form of traditional herbal medicine (WHO, 2002.) and the worldwide annual market for these products approaches US$ 60 billion (Willcox and Bodeker, 2004). Herbal medicine is a major component in all indigenous people’s traditional medicine. Medicinal plants have continued to attract attention in global search for effective methods of using plants parts (e.g. seeds, leaves, stems, roots, barks etc) for the treatment of many diseases affecting humans (Sofowora, 2008). This is as a result of the continuous need for less expensive means of disease control.
Medicinal plants are plants which can be used for therapeutic purposes or which are precursors for the synthesis of useful drugs (Sofowora, 2008). Many important drugs used in healthcare today are directly derived from plants due to its bioactive constituents such as; alkaloids, tannins, steroids, etc. Examples include L-Dopa derived fromMucuna spp used for anti-parkinsonism, another is Caffeine, a CNS stimulant derived from Camellia sinensis and Quinine from Cinchona ledgeriana and used for Antimalarial, antipyretic.
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