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The study was designed to investigate quantitative differences of sterols and ferulic esters in the leaves
and stem barks of Prunus africana if leaves can substitute destructive exploitation of stem barks in the
production of anti-Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia herbal formulations.
Plant collection from the Northern, Southern and Western region of Tanzania was From May to July,
2012 while Chromatographic analyses were carried out at the Institute of Traditional medicine,
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences from September 2012 to March 2013. The
quantitative comparison was done by determining the quantities of β-sitosterol and n-docosanol as
marker compounds using Camag HPTLC analysis. The analysis revealed that, leaves had higher
concentration of β-sitosterol than stem barks. The concentration of β-sitosterol in the leaves of P.
africana ranged between 0.1518 – 0.2277 μg. In the stem barks the concentrations of β-sitosterol was
low compared with amount detected in the leaves. The concentration of β-sitosterol in the stem barks
ranged between 0.0969-0.2184 μg. The concentration of n-docosanol in the leaves was higher than in the
stem barks of P. africana. In the leaves, the concentration ranged between 0.33991 – 0.4989 μg and in
the barks, the concentration ranged between 0.1484 – 0.2069 μg. Generally, the concentration of β-
sitosterol and n-docosanol in the leaves were much higher than in the stem barks of P. africana. For a
sustainable harvesting and conservation reasons, it is therefore ideal to substitute stem barks by leaves in
the preparation of herbal medicines used in the treatment of BPH. Further study on other essential
phytochemicals responsible for anti-BPH efficacy should be done to emphasize on complementing
harvesting of stem barks with leaves.
Key words: Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Prunus africana, bark extracts, leaves extracts, Tanzania.