CHAPTHER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study
Plants are important in
our everyday existence. They provide our foods, produce the oxygen we breathe,
and serve as raw materials for many industrial products such as clothes, foot
wears and so many others. Plants also provide raw materials for our buildings
and in the manufacture of biofuels, dyes, perfumes, pesticides, adsorbents and
drugs. The plant kingdom has proven to be the most useful in the treatment of
diseases and they provide an important source of all the world’s
pharmaceuticals. The most important of these bioactive constituents of plants
are steroids, terpenoids, carotenoids, flavanoids, alkaloids, tannins and
glycosides. Plants in all facet of life have served a valuable starting
material for drug development (Ajibesin, 2011). Antibiotics or antimicrobial
substances like saponins, glycosides, flavonoids and alkaloids etc are found to
be distributed in plants, yet these compounds were not well established due to
the lack of knowledge and techniques. The phytoconstituents which are phenols,
anthraquinones, alkaloids, glycosides, flavonoids and saponins are antibiotic
principles of plants. Plants are now occupying important position in allopathic
medicine, herbal medicine, homoeopathy and aromatherapy. Medicinal plants are
the sources of many important drugs of the modern world. Many of these
indigenous medicinal plants are used as spices and food plants; they are also
sometimes added to foods meant for pregnant mothers for medicinal purposes (
Akinpela and Onakoya, 2006). Many plants are cheaper and more accessible to
most people especially in the developing countries than orthodox medicine, and
there is lower incidence of adverse effects after use. These reasons might
account for
their worldwide
attention and use. The medicinal properties of some plants have been documented
by some researchers ( Akinpelu and Onukoya, 2006). Medicinal plants are of
great importance to the health of individuals and communities. It was the
advent of antibiotics in the 1950s that led to the decline of the use of plant
derivatives as antimicrobials (Marjorie, 1999). Medicinal plants contain
physiologically active components which over the years have been exploited in
the traditional medical practices for the treatment of various ailments
(Ajibesin, 2011). A relatively small percentage of less than 10% of all the
plants on earth is believed to serve as sources of medicine (Marjorie, 1999).
In an effort to find
alternative sources of feedstuffs to replace some or all of the maize in the
diet of pigs and other non-ruminant farm animals, several studies have been
conducted to determine the suitability of some agro-industrial wastes as feed
ingredients. These include cocoa pod husks, brewers spent grains, rice bran,
maize bran, groundnut skins, and wheat bran. However, one by-product that
requires consideration is cashew nut testa, a by-product obtained from the
processing of cashew nuts. Its utilization as animal feed even at relatively
low dosage formulations will minimize its disposal problem as well as reduce
the cost of animal feeding.
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