CHAPTER ONE

1.1   INTRODUCTION

Oil belongs to the body of lipids which is a broad group of naturally occurring hydrophobic molecules that contain carbon. They include fats, waxes, sterols, fats-soluble vitamins, etc. This is divided into saturated and unsaturated fatty acid. Saturated fatty acids are known as fats usually obtained from animals while oil belonging to the unsaturated group is usually gotten from plants.

Crysophyllum albidum (White Star Apple) is a plant grown in the mid-Africa particularly in Nigeria, Cameroon, etc. Crysophyllum albidum (G. Don) is a tropical edible fruit tree. It belongs to the family sapotaceae which has up to 800 species and make up almost half the order Ebernales[1]. Okigbo[2] and Okafor[3] reported that a few species of Crysophyllum grow in the boarder regions between the forest and Savanna in Nigeria. The plants as reported by Bada[4], can be found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d’ Ivoire, Uganda and Niger republic. The species is called different names depending on the locality. The table below shows some locality and names of the species.

SOME LOCALITIES AND THE SPECIE’S NAMES.

LOCALITY

NAME

Igbo

Yoruba

Edo

Scientific Name

Udala

Agbalumo

Otien

Chrysophyllum albidum (G.Don)

Flowering is usually from April to June. The flowers are sessile and occur in clusters in the leaf axils of the fruiting branch. The fruits are normally January to March but the fruit have been seen recently in November.

Fruiting branch of C. albidum

When ripe, the fruits are pale orange, edible, ovoid in shape and pointed at the apex. It is a berry with crescent shaped seeds. See the diagram below.

C. albidum Fruits with revealed seeds.

C. albidum fruit contains 8.8% protein, 17.1% oil, 21% sugar 11% starch [5]. The fruits are generally eaten by both old and young people. C. albidum fruits have been reported to be the highest source of ascorbic acid, excellent source of vitamins, irons, flavour to diets and raw material to some manufacturing industries [6]. C. albidum has been classified by Okafor [3] and Okigbo [2] as a wild uncultivated fruit tree which occurs naturally in the high forests or bushes and seldom planted as a fruit tree. Boys, girls and women generally pick C. albidum fruits from the wild forest for their consumption and sales. C. albidum fruit is a great source of economic empowerment to rural dwellers. This is because a fruit is sold at N5 (Five naira), N10 (Ten naira) depending on the size of the fruit. The anti-microbial effect of African star apple (C. albidum) belonging to the family sapotaceae is that the roots and leaves are used for medicinal purposes[7]. The seeds are used for local games[4] or discarded. The seeds of C. albidum are usually thrown away and no report has existed on the use of oils from non-utilized oil seeds for the treatment of wounds or as skin ointments.

OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

The objectives of this research work are;

1.           To extract and characterize the oil obtained from C. albidum seed.

2.           To determine the antifungal/antibacterial activity of C. albidum seed oil.