2.3 Extraction and Preliminary Phytochemical screening of leaf powder of S. mombin L.
The extraction process was carried out according to standard procedures as indicated by (Harborne, 1998). In brief, 60g of air-dried SM powder was weighed and macerated serially at room temperature for 72 hours until the solvent of extraction was clear. The extraction was performed in triplicates using solvents of increasing polarities. These solvents were from less polar to more; hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and methanol. Extracts of each solvent were bulked together, filtered, concentrated and dried using a rotary evaporator and preserved in the refrigerator (−4 °C) for future phytochemical screening, isolation, purification and characterization. Preliminary qualitative phytochemical analysis was performed on the methanolic extract according to standard procedures reported (Harborne, 1998, Costa et al., 2012a).