Proximate Composition, Phytochemicals Evaluation and Characterization of Aqueous Fruit Extract of Balanites aegyptiaca (Desert Date Palm)

Background and objectives: 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. Balanites aegyptiaca is an evergreen plant containing large varieties of chemical substances which possess important therapeutic properties and can be utilized as food supplement. The aim of the study was to carry out proximate, phytochemicals and identification of chemical compounds using aqueous fruit extract of Balanites aegyptiaca. Methods: The proximate and phytochemicals analysis were carried out by standard protocols of AOAC, While The phyto-constitutes of Balanites aegyptiaca aqueous fruit extract were determined by Gas Chromatography (Agilent 6890 series) coupled with HP-5MS column mass spectrometer. The helium was used as carrier gas at a flow of 1.0ml/min. The identification of the constituents of aqueous fruit extract was performed by matching their mass spectra and retention indices with those obtained from authentic samples and/or NSIT/Wiley spectra libraries, using different types of search (PBM/NIST/AMDIS) and available literature data. Results: The phytochemical analysis reveals that the aqueous fruit extract of Balanites aegyptiaca contained flavonoids (288.33+3.01 mg/100g), tannins (20.50+0.4mg/100g) saponin (320.90+10.28mg/100g), Glycoside (163.92+0.33), steroids (36.40+0.80mg/100g), alkaloids (78.67+1.03mg/100g) and phenols (227.43+1.01mg/100g) while Terpenoids and Anthraquinones, Anthocyanines were found to be absent. The proximate analysis of the fruits of Balanites aegyptiaca; revealed that the moisture content was 2.3±0.2%, crude protein 3.2±0.08%, crude fibre 16.4±0.5%, lipid content 3.1±0.7, carbohydrates 72.6±1.6% and ash content 2.4±0.2%. The GC-MS Analysis shows the presents of many important organic compounds in which three were reported to have biological activity this includes Benzene, [(methoxymethoxy)m ethyl]-, Undecanoic acid Hexadecanoic acid, ....