COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF PHYTOCHEMICAL AND FATTY ACID COMPOSITIONS IN TWO NIGERIAN BASILS (Ocimum basilicum L. and Ocimum gratissimum L.)

The study was carried out to evaluate the phytochemical and fatty acid compositions

of two species of Ocimum. The result of the phytochemicals analysis revealed higher

concentration of phytochemical in Ocimum gratissimum such as the presence of

alkaloid (5.23%,), saponin (5.23%), flavonoid (11.07%), phenol (1.04%), tannin

(4.13%), phytate (124.4%) and oxalate (59.9%) compared to Ocimum basilicum.

Fatty acid analysis showed that essential oil was significantly high in Ocimum

gratissimum. linoleic (41.7%), docosahexaenoic (0/95%) and arachidonic acid

(0.77%) was more concentrated in O. gratissimum compared to O. basilicum, the

concentration of α-linoleic acid is the same for both species, non-essential oil was

higher in O. gratissimum except palmitic acid. It revealed that myristic (1.89%)

margaric (0.77%), stearic (6.35%), arachidic (3.82%), pentadecanoic acid (0.98%),

palmitoleic trans acid (1.52%) and behenic (4.42%) were high in O. gratissimum than

O. basilicum. The result of the analyzed Ocimum showed that there were significant

concentrations of phytochemicals and fatty acid in Ocimum gratissimum compared

to Ocimum basilicum making the nutritional contents useful for valuable healthy

ingredient to improve the deficiency of these phytochemicals and essential oil in

human diet.