African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (5), pp. 460-462, May 2005          
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2005 Academic Journals

Short Communication

Extracts of Pterocarpus osun as a histological stain for collagen fibres

AVWIORO OG ¹*, ALOAMAKA PC ², OJIANYA NU ³, ODUOLA T ⁴, EKPO EO ⁵

¹Department of Histopathology, School of Medical Lab. Science, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

²Department of Physiology, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria.

³Department of Histopathology, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Ile-Ife, Nigeria

⁴Department of Haematology and Blood Transfussion, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

⁵Department of Anatomy, Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: avwiorog@yahoo.com. Tel: 2348037149777.

Accepted 11 March, 2005

The staining ability of Pterocarpus osun extract on tissue sections was determined. 2 kg of P. osun stem was dried, milled to obtain a fine powder and a red pigment extracted from the powder with 1 L of 70% ethanol at 78°C for 24 h. The alcoholic and acidic extracts were used to stain tissue sections. Collagen fibres, red blood cells and muscles were stained in shades of reddish brown. Preliminary phytochemical screening of this extract revealed that it contained alkaloids, steroid ring, cardiac glycosides and reducing sugar

Key words: Pterocarpus osun, phytochemical screening, tissue sections, stain, mordant.