Title: Bioactive Compounds And Therapeutic Prospects Of Nigerian Medicinal Plants
Authors: Ahmed Attahiru
Volume: 9
Issue: 9
Pages: 24-28
Publication Date: 2025/09/28
Abstract:
Nigeria possesses one of the richest biodiversities in Africa, with a wide range of medicinal plants that have been used for centuries in traditional healthcare systems. These plants are valuable reservoirs of structurally diverse secondary metabolites including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, phenolic acids, saponins, and glycosides. Such compounds demonstrate remarkable pharmacological activities ranging from antimicrobial and antimalarial to anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects. The field of medicinal chemistry provides the framework for isolating, characterizing, and optimizing these natural products for drug discovery and development. Although ethnobotanical knowledge in Nigeria is extensive, only a fraction of medicinal plants has been subjected to systematic phytochemical and pharmacological evaluation. Recent advances in chromatographic, spectroscopic, and computational approaches have improved compound identification, structure elucidation, and structure activity relationship studies, thereby opening new opportunities for drug lead development from Nigerian flora. Nevertheless, challenges such as limited funding, poor standardization of herbal preparations, lack of advanced research infrastructure, and inadequate documentation of indigenous knowledge continue to impede progress. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the phytochemical composition and medicinal chemistry of Nigerian plants, with emphasis on bioactive compounds, methodologies for their investigation, pharmacological potentials, and prospects for integration into modern drug discovery pipelines. Highlighting both the opportunities and limitations, the paper underscores the urgent need for stronger research capacity, collaborative networks, and government support in order to fully realize the therapeutic promise of Nigerian medicinal plants in global healthcare.