Bioactive Metabolites in improved cowpea seeds

Abstract

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has developed some pest and disease resistant cowpeas. From these, the seeds of 8 cowpea cultivars were extracted with ethanol, and partitioned into chloroform and water-soluble fractions, the water-soluble fraction was further extracted with ethyl acetate. Residues from ethanol, chloroform and ethyl acetate soluble fractions for each of the 8 cowpea cultivars were screened against brine shrimp larvae. The see extracts of cowpea cultivars IT93K-596-9-12, IT90K-277-2 and IT93K – 452 – 1 were found to be most active, indicating that they contain cytotoxic compound(s).