Medicinal plants, which form the backbone of traditional
medicine, in the last few decades have been the subject
for very intense pharmacological studies, this has been
brought about by the acknowledgement of the value of
medicinal plants as potential sources of new compounds
of therapeutic value and as sources of lead compounds
in drug development. In developing countries, it is
estimated that about 80% of the population really
depends on traditional medicine for their primary
healthcare. There arises a need to screen medicinal
plants for bioactive compounds as a basis for further
pharmacological studies. Medicinal plants are considered
to be an important source of antioxidant compounds and
the therapeutic benefit of many medicinal plants often
attributes to their antioxidant properties (Hasan et al.,