CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION           Medicinal plants  over the  years  has  been part  and  parcel of  human society  to  combat  diseases  (Kausik  et al., 2002). These  plants  has  been a good  source of food because they provide essential nutritional values, medicinal properties  and  notable  physiological  effect   to life (Dalziel,  1973) .

          Hibiscus sabdariffa  and  Azadinachta  indica  are  used  as  medicinal and food  ingredients  in  many  parts  of the world including Nigeria. Both plants  are  highly  sourced  as food  vegetable particularly because of their health promoting  and  diseases- preventing  properties  strongly  suspected  to be  due to the presence  of many phytochemicals in them (Ijeomah et al, 2012). These phytochemicals  present  like alkaloid, saponin, glycoside, tannin, phenol, flavonoid, steroid , reducing   sugar,  nimbidin,  sodium  nimbidate, nimbin, gedunin,  delphinidin  3-  sambubioside  and  protocatechuic  acid  in the  two  plants  have been  found  to be  protective and preventive against  many degenerative diseases and pathological process such as in ageing (Burns  et al., 2001). Hibiscus sabdariffa (family: malvaceae) commonly known as zobo in Nigeria, is an annual herbaceous shrub,  cultivated  for its  flowers, leaves  and seeds. It is found in the tropics, subtropics and other parts of the world (Dalziel, 1973) but it is utilized beyond these areas of cultivation globally. In folk medicine this   medicinal herb is used for the treatment of hypertension (Wang et al., 2000; Odigie et al., 2003). The plant is reported to have hepatoprotective, antihypertensive, antihyperlipidemic, anticancer and antioxidant properties (Mahadevan and Shivali, 2009).

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