Nigeria as a nation grows varieties of fruits and vegetables and most importantly, they are all organic!
There are many fresh fruits and vegetables one can pick even from local farms or gardens.
The fruits that come to my mind right now are pineapples, oranges, mangos; banana, avocado pears, grapefruits; tangerines, carrots, apples, cocoa, paw paw; lime, lemons, guava, kola nuts, coconuts, pears, olive, palm fruits and numerous other fruits scattered but can be found all over Nigeria.
Nigeria also grows numerous vegetables including root vegetables and they include onions, cucumber, spinach, cauliflower, carrots, pumpkin, garden eggs; melons, watercress, sweet potatoes; potatoes; water-melon, fluted pumpkins, mushrooms, celery; bitterleaves, groundnuts, tomatoes, corn/maize, pepper, coco-yams etc; what i really want to share with you is the one called AGBALUMO
The “agbalumo” fruit, also known as the “star apple”, is an annual popular fruit in Lagos State.The botanical name of the fruit is “Chrysophyllum albidum, Family Sapotaceae”.The fruits are sub-spherical in shape, about 3cm in diameter, usually 5-celled and contain an edible, sweet fruit-pulp. When in season, it is often an item of market trade.
Women retail-traders sell the fruits both inside our markets and along our streets, especially adjacent to school-gates{school children love this fruit dearly!} and bus –stops. Young girls hawk them in large trays on top of their heads. This has to be so because the “agbalumo” fruits cannot be kept for too long after harvesting.
Medicinally, they are good remedies for sore-throat and tooth-ache. They are also useful for constipation.
Culturally, the seeds are threaded as anklets in dancing. Also, young people, especially boys, use the seeds to play a peculiar out
The fruit pulp is rich in Vitamin C and iron and an excellent source of raw material for industries. Tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, proteins, carbohydates and resins are the phytochemicals that have been reported in Chrysophyllum albidum. Methanolic extract of the cotyledons from the seeds of Chrysophyllum albidum led to the isolation of eleagnine, tetrahydro- 2 -methylharman and skatole.
Eleagnine was found to be the main compound responsible for its antimicrobial activity. Eleagnine was further shown to exhibit anti-nociceptive, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. The seed cotyledon has been reported to possess anti-hyperglycemic (lowers high blood sugar) and hypolipidemic (lower blood cholesterol) effects.
The researchers investigated the effect of oral administration of the leaf extract of Chrysophyllum albidum G. on biochemical and haematological parameters in albino rats for 16 days.
The researchers write: In conclusion, the study has demonstrated that the leaf extract of Chrysophyllum albidum may not cause any adverse effect on the biochemical and haematological indices of toxicity.
Moreover, the extract was found to possess anti-platelet and hypoglycemic (lowers blood sugar) properties and might be employed in the management of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and diabetes mellitus, respectively. Further investigation is needed to establish the anti-platelet property of the extract.
Another study by researchers at the Forest Research Institute, Ibadan, Oyo State, showed that star apple leaves exhibited strong antibacterial activity against common bacteria isolates.
The study titled, Antibacterial activity and phytochemical screening of Chrysophyllum albidum leaves was published in Asian Journal of Food and Agro-Industry.
Preliminary phytochemical screening of Chrysophyllum albidum leaves for secondary metabolites showed the presence of tannin, anthraquinone and cardiac glycosides in the plant samples. The samples were devoid of saponin, alkaloids and reducing sugars.
The researchers write: Biological actions are primarily due to these components in a very complicated concert of synergistic or antagonistic activities. Mixtures of such chemicals show a broad spectrum of biological effects and pharmacological properties.
The antimicrobial properties of the plant observed in this study could be attributed to the presence of tannin, anthraquinone and cardiac glycosides. The results showed that the test organisms were susceptible to the water extracts based on their zones of inhibition, which ranged from 10 to 27 mm. Escherichia coli showed the highest susceptibility of 27. All the organisms were sensitive at all concentrations except Escherichia coli, which was not sensitive at 125 g/mL and 250 g/mL. The least activity 10 mm was detected at 125 g/mL concentration with.
The methanolic extract of Chrysopyllum albidum leaves exhibited some antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms tested as assessed by zones of inhibition that ranged from (250 to 350.40mm).
Escherichia coli had the highest susceptibility at 250 g/mL concentrations with zone of inhibition of 350.40 mm. There was increase in the zone of inhibition for Escherichia coli from 30 (0.15) mm at 125 g/mL to 35 (0.40) mm and 350.21 at 250 g/mg and 500 g/mL respectively. Salmonella typhi and Shigella spp had a zone of inhibition of 35 mm at all concentrations except at 500 g/mg where Shigella spp. which had zone of inhibition of 30 (0.30) mm.
These results suggest that water and methanolic extracts from the leaves of Chrysophylum albidum may contain active agent(s). This provides the basis for their folkloric use as cure for some human ailments like skin infection, diarrhoea and stomachache, which are as a result of infections and inflammatory reactions. It is suggested that more research be conducted to further isolate, identify, characterise and elucidate the bioactive compounds from Chrysophylum albidum.
In conclusion, the result of this study justifies the traditional uses of the leaves of Chrysophylum albidum for therapeutic purposes. The findings could also be of commercial interest to both pharmaceutical companies and research institute in the production of new drugs.
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