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Ewemen Journal of Natural Product Research EXTRACTS OF SESAMUM INDICUM AND

NEWBOULDIA LAEVIS FLOWERS AS SUBSTITUTE INDICATORS IN ACID-BASE
TITRATION

Article · November 2017

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 Volume 2 | Issue 1 | Page 10 - 13

Ewemen Journal of Natural Product Research

ISSN: 2504-8643

Available online at http://ewemen.com/category/ejnpr/

Original Research

EXTRACTS OF SESAMUM INDICUM AND NEWBOULDIA LAEVIS FLOWERS AS

SUBSTITUTE INDICATORS IN ACID – BASE TITRATION.
1ABUH L. O., 2*EGU S. A., 1JOHN R. and 2ISAH A. A.
1Integrated Science Department, Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa, Kogi State, Nigeria
2Chemistry Department, Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa. Kogi State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Received 19 August, 2017
Revised on the 20 August, 2017
Accepted 13 November, 2017
*Corresponding Author’s Email:
attahegu@gmail.com
The quest to expand the list of natural indicators that could serve as suitable
substitutes for hazardous and less ecofriendly synthetic indicators like
phenolphthalein and methyl orange, has led many researchers to the
consideration of plant based natural indicators. These plants are cheap,
readily available and non-toxic to human and environment. This work
considered the ethanolic extracts of flowers of Sesamum indicum and
Newbouldia laevis as indicators in titrimetric analysis. The result showed
these extracts to be favorable and workable substitutes to methyl orange in
strong acid/strong base as well as good substitute to phenolphthalein in the
neutralization reaction between weak acid/strong base.

Keywords: Natural indicators; Acid-base indicators; methyl orange;

phenolphthalein; Sesamu indicum; Newbouldia laevis; concordance value.

INTRODUCTION
Titrimetric analysis is a core aspect in the study of
chemistry, and an indicator is commonly used to
establish neutralization reaction i.e. end point. Such
indicators include methyl orange, phenolphthalein,
methyl red etc. These indicators have been reported
from several researches to contain hazardous
substances that are harmful to human health, eco-
system and the environment. Phenolphthalein may
cause respiratory tract irritation if inhaled and at
chronic stage could cause cancer in humans (LabChem,
2016); methyl orange and phenolphthalein can cause
irritation of the eye and skin, gastro-intestinal
irritation, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea (LabChem
2016, 2017). This hazard has generated concern over
the years and the return to nature is been advocated by
the noble researchers. Osabohien (2009), called for the
return to nature because they are compatible and
degradable. Abuh et al (2016), reported the eco-
friendliness of natural plants in their work on white
and red Frangipani (plumeria species) as substitutes to
synthetic indicators; as the plant extracts competed
favorably and showed good workability with methyl
orange and phenolphthalein. Pramod et al (2013),
reported that Delonix regia flower extracts is neither
harmful to the environment nor cause any health
hazard. In a similar way Uche et al (2014) reported that
dye extracts from mango, ginger and hibiscus could
serve as variable substitute indicators in acid-base
titration. Ochonogo (2000) revealed in his report that
extracts from hibiscus flower compare favorably with
phenolphthalein as indicator for weak acid – strong
base titration.
The methanolic and aqueous extracts of Euphorbia mili,

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 Ew J Nat Prod Res 2017, 2(1): 10 - 13
Erythrina varigata and Nelumbo nucifera showed
natural indicators as more beneficial, easy to prepare,
readily available, eco-friendly, pollution free, inert and
having accurate results (Shivaji and Ankush, 2014).
Despite the advances in the search for natural
indicators, there still remain a good number of
unexplored flowers. It is for this reason, among others
that this work considered the extract from flowers of
Sesamum indicum (Figure 1) and Newbouldia laevis
(Figure 2) with the hope of discovering better natural
indicators.
Figure 1: Flower of Sesamum indicum
Figure 2: Flower of Newbouldia laevis
Sesamum indicum is commonly called beniseed, it is a
nativeof India and Africa and the flowers are purple
with a blend of white, it belong to pedaliaceae family
(Wikipedia, 2017). It is common and known as being
rich in iron, manganese, copper, and calcium. It
contains anthocyanin that changes colour with
hydrogen ion (pH). Sesamum indicum or Sesamum is of
the genus indicum, it is a flowering plant in the genus
sesamum, also called benne. Sesamum is an annual
plant growing 50-100 cm tall, with opposite leaves 4-
14 cm long with an entire margin, they are broad
lanceolate, to 5cm broad at the base of the plant,
narrowing to just 1cm broad on the flowering stem.
The flowers are yellow, tubular 3-5 cm long with a four
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Abuh et al.
lobed mouth. The flowers may vary in colour with
some being white, blue or purple.
Numerous wild relatives occur in African and smaller
number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical
regions around the world and cultivated for its edible
seeds which grow in pods or buns. It has one of the
highest oil contents of any seed, with a rich, puffy
flavor. It is a common ingredient in cuisines across the
world (Ray, 2011). The seed is produced in a 2.5-3.8 cm
long decided seed capsule that opens when the seeds
are mature. There are five rows seed within each seed
capsule, and seed may be yellow, white, brown or black
(Morris, 2002).
Newbouldia laevis is a tropical plant belonging to the
family of Bignoniaceae. It is among the most useful
plants in Africa and grows up to 10m height with
cauliflorous habit, it is an ever green plant with a height
of 7-8m high in the West Africa and up to 20m in
Nigeria. The plant has a characteristic shiny dark green
leaves with purple flowers; Hausa call it Aduru, Igbos -
Ogirisi, Yorubas – Akoko (Blessing, 2015). Flowers are
tubular, pink, come in bunches, attracted by butterflies
and bees. This plant has many medicinal properties and
is valuable in Africa.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Materials
All reagents and equipment were obtained from
integrated science laboratory of Kogi State College of
Education, Ankpa.
Sesamum indicum flowers and flower from Newbouldia
laevis were collected from Ankpa, Kogi State, Nigeria
and washed in distilled water to remove dirt or
substances that may serve as interferences. The
flowers were crushed in a mortar and pounded using
the pestle. The macerated flowers were transferred
into a 250 ml beaker and 200 ml absolute ethanol
(99%) was added. The beaker was covered properly
with aluminum foil Igidi (2012) for 2 days and the
content was kept in a cupboard and preserved away
from sunlight. The extract was then filtered into a glass
bottle and was properly corked, ready for the titration.
Methyl orange and phenolphthalein were the synthetic
indicators used as standards while the filtrates of the
flower extracts i.e. Sesamu indicum and Newbouldia
laevis were the natural indicators.
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 Ew J Nat Prod Res 2017, 2(1): 10 - 13 Abuh et al.

BDH analytical grade NaOH, Na2CO3, HCl and CH3COOH
were the reagents used and were all prepared using
standard analytical procedures to obtain the standard
solutions. 0.1M concentration was prepared for all the
solution.
The titrimetric analysis was conducted for strong acid
against strong base, strong acid against weak base,
weak acid against strong base, and weak acid against
weak base. For each of the titrimetric procedure, 3 sets
of titrations were conducted with the four set of
indicators i.e. methyl orange, phenolpthalein, Sesamu
indicum and Newbouldia laevis flower extracts; the
titrations were conducted with 25 mL, each of the base
with 2 drops of the synthetic dye and 2 mL each of the
flower extracts. Three sets of reading were taken each
for the indicators and the average volume of the acid
used were calculated.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The titration result between HCl/NaOH shows both
plant extracts to have concordance values with methyl
orange i.e. 8.50 mL (Sesamu indicum), 8.50 mL
(Newbouldia laevis), and 8.70 mL (methyl orange)
(Table 1 and 2). This conforms to Uche et al (2014),
who reported that extracts from ginger, kolanut and
mango compared favorably with methyl orange.
extracts did not show concordance with the synthetic
indicators but showed close and good workable values
between methyl orange and Sesamu indicum and
Newbouldia laevis and phenolphthalein (Table 2).
There were good values for both extracts with
phenolphthalein in neutralization reaction of
CH3COOH/Na2CO3 as compared with methyl orange.
Thus, the plants displayed favorable and comfortable
workability as indicators in titrimetric analysis of
strong acid/strong base and weak acid/weak base. The
extracts extract of SI is in concordance with
phenolphthalein in the reaction of CH3COOH/NaOH.
However, the plant extracts displayed close workable
values to CH3COOH/NaOH and CH3COOH/Na2CO3.
CONCLUSION
The extracts of the flowers of Sesamu indicum and the
Newbouldia laevis have shown good potential as acid-
base indicators in strong acid/strong base
neutralization reaction and a better substitute to
methyl orange and phenolphthalein in weak
acid/strong base titrimetric analysis. An excellent
workability was presented by the extracts with the
plants extracts favoring to serve as substitutes to
phenolphthalein, a synthetic indicator which could be
of concern to environmental protection and principle
of green chemistry.

Table 1: Indicators’ colour changes From our findings, the flowers of Sesamu indicum and
Newbouldia laevis can serve as substitute to the
Indicators in acid in base at end point
synthetic indicator (methyl orange and
MO Pink Orange Pink
Phe Colourless Purple Colourless phenolphthalein) with the extracts as better
SI Colourless Yellow Colourless substitutes to phenolphthalein. Hence, we recommend
NL Purple Lemon-Green Colourless their usage in titrimetric analysis.
MO = Methyl orange; Phe = Phenolphthalein; SI = Sesamum indicum; NL =
Newbouldia laevis

CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Table 2: Titrimetric result between strong acid/strong base
(HCl/NaOH) None declared.
Indicators Average titer values (mL)
SA/SB SA/WB WA/SB WA/WB
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Article Citation:
Abuh LO, Egu SA, John R and Isah AA (2017). Extracts of
Sesamum indicum and Newbouldia laevis flowers as
substitute indicators in acid – base titration. Ew J Nat Prod
Res 2(1): 10 - 13.
Author’s Contributions:
Author ALO designed the study, ALO and ESA wrote the
procedures and interpreted the data. Authors IAA and
JR performed the experiments. Authors ALO and ESA
managed the literature searches and produced the
initial draft and reviewed the write up for
corrections. All authors managed the financial
activities.
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