Background: Mother Earth has endowed mankind with numerous resources of plants and animals of terrestrial, aquatic and marine origins. A large species of these plants and animals have been screened for their phytochemical constituents, bioactivity, nutraceutical significance and use as Pharmaceutical intermediates. Plants are Pharmacognostical standardized in order to establish their profiles which can further be developed into Pharmacopoeia monographs. Fadogia cienkowskii is a rapidly developing perennial plant predominantly found in the savanna regions and widely used in the treatment of variety of abnormal health conditions. The recent quest for the use of medicinal plants in the treatment of diseases in man is predicated upon the incidence of adverse reaction and untoward effects often resulting from the use of orthodox medicines. Aside from safety, medicinal plants are also cost effective although they may be liable to adulteration, substitution and sophistication. Pharmacognostic standardization must be carried out to ensure identity, authenticity, purity, quality, and genuiness of the medicinal plant material. The result of such standards must be reproducible and predictable based on monographic profile of the given plant.

Methods: This involves macroscopic and microscopic evaluations as well as preliminary phytochemical analysis.

Results: The anatomical sections revealed the presence of numerous multicellular trichomes, calcium oxalate crystals, stomata, palisade cells, and xylem and phloem vessels. Quantitative microscopical analysis gave vein islet number of 5.46mm, stomata index 18.92 while phytomedicinal evaluation yielded total ash 3.85%, moisture content 3.17%, water soluble extractive 3.4% and alcohol soluble extractive 4.4%. Phytochemical screening of the methanol extract of the powdered leaf of plant revealed the presence of saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, carbohydrates, glycosides, terpenes, tannins and resins.

Conclusion: In the light of this result, Fadogia cienkowskii has been observed to possess characteristics that have made its use in ethno medicine inevitable.