CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Bioactive plants are commonly used by traditional healers or in folklore
medicines for the relief of pain or some alignments. This act of medication has
made some plant families popular (Heinrich 2000; Kuete et al., 2006).The
acceptance of traditional medicine as an alternative form of health care has assisted
scientists in elevating these claims, by studying the chemical composition and
biological potential (Bisignano et al., 1996; Hammer et al., 1999). This has led to
the advent of new drugs in the market.
In the last decades, the pharmaceutical industry has been faced with an
influx of drug-resistance pathogens in treating infectious diseases (Hugo and
Russel, 1984). The increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the
side effects of some known drugs has aroused the interest of scientist in tapping
bioactive plants to control and cure some of the global infections (Hostettmann and
Hamburger, 1991).
Nigeria and South Africa is a country with great cultural diversity and
biodiversity, with many people still using a wide variety of plants in medicine and
other necessities of life (Van Wyk and Gericke, 2000)
