An easy method to classify plant parts in order to investigate them for bioactive compounds: application to Commiphora africana originated from Mauritania

Bah Mohamed-Lemine Abdellahia,

Abstract

An easy ethnomedicinal method, applicable to classify plant parts and healed symptoms have been developed. It may allow a rational choice of the most promising parts and efficiently adequate biotests. Since Commiphora africana is insufficiently investigated and Mauritanian ethnotherapy uses it to heal several symptoms, we applied this method to classify its parts and to adopt pertinent biotest. Our results highlight oleoresin, leaf and bark as the most promising parts and, at the same time, bacteriological biotest as the fitting bioassay. Importance of Commiphora africana oleoresin in Mauritania (28.6 %) reminds the esteem which is reserved to it in North Africa [11], whereas important use of leafs, roots and bark (≈ 18.4 %) is comparable to use generalized to other plants in neighboring Mali and Senegal [7, 13]. These results may be explained by geographical position of Mauritania being culturally and demographically a transition between North and Sub Saharan Africa.