Diversity, Chemical Composition, and Domestication Potential of Allanblackia parviflora A. Chev. in West Africa

Allanblackia parviflora A. Chev. is an indigenous tree species which is found in West African rainforest zones. It is an underutilized fruit tree species that has been targeted for improvement as part of efforts to domesticate high-value indigenous multi-purpose trees for fruit and seed production in Africa. Allanblackia has several benefits, such as providing shade, timber, and medicine; however, the production of edible oil from its seeds is the economically most important use. There is evidence that the Allanblackia seed oil, which is used for cooking, the production of margarine and the manufacturing of ointments and soap, is being developed as a new agri-business in Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Tanzania. Despite the nutritional and socio-economic importance of A. parviflora, it is still at the early stages of its domestication process. Even though several researchers have explored the biology of this species, there is very limited scientific information available on its morphological and genetic diversity and silvicultural management in West Africa. Therefore, this systematic review presents an up-to-date overview on the uses, seed chemical composition, and morphological and genetic diversity of this fruit tree species, and proposes a way forward for future research towards improvement and domestication.

New non-edible Allanblackia parviflora seed oil as an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production and characterization of the fuel

This study is aimed at producing biodiesel from Allanblackia parviflora seed oil as a new non-edible alternative resource. The amount of oil extracted from the seeds was approximately 49% and was mainly composed of linoleic acids (66.68). The Allanblackia parviflora methyl esters (APME) were prepared using NaOH as a homogeneous base-catalyst for the transesterification. The rate of conversion of the triglycerides to methyl esters was determined using Gas Chromatograph with an optimum yield of 97.1%. The conditions under which this maximum yield (97.1%) was obtained include methanol to Allanblackia parviflora oil ratio of 6:1, reaction temperature of 60 ℃, NaOH concentration of 1% and reaction time of 2 h. The properties of the methyl esters were comparable to fuel properties of conventional diesel using ASTM and European Union standards. The seeds of Allanblackia parviflora can be described as promising non-edible resource.

Phytochemical screening and antimicrobial activities of the stem bark of Allanblackia parviflora Chev. (Clusiaceae)

This study has successfully explored the photochemistry and antimicrobial properties of the methanolic, aqueous and pet ether stem bark extracts of Allanblackia parviflora (Chevalier) (Clusiaceae). The qualitative phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, tanins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, reducing sugar, triterpenoids, anthraquinones, saponins and phytosterols in the various plant samples and the absence of cyanogenic glycosides in all the samples screened. The antimicrobial assay employed Agar-well diffusion for the preliminary screening and Micro broth dilution method for the MIC determination. Ten (10) microbial strains including one fungus (Candida albicans), five gram-negative (Salmonella typhi, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Escherichia coli ATCC 2592, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 4853) and four gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Streptococcus paratypi A and Bacillus subtilis NCTC 10073) were employed in the assay using Ciprofloxacin as the reference drug. The methanolic extract exhibited the highest activity against E. faecalis with zone of inhibition 20 mm and MIC of 2.5 mg/ml. Pet ether extract on the other hand was inactive against test microbes. The results from the study therefore suggest that the stem bark of Allanblackia parviflora possess some phytochemicals that acts synergistically to provide the observed antimicrobial properties as claimed by traditional medicine.