EXTRACTION AND UTILIZATION OF NATURAL PRODUCTS (Plumeria species) GROWN IN ANKPA, KOGI STATE, NIGERIA; AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY SOURCE OF ACID/BASE INDICATOR FOR TITRIMETRIC ANALYSIS

This work focused on extraction and utilization of an environmentally friendly source of acid/base indicator from natural product, Plumeria species. White and red frangipanis flower petals freshly collected from Ankpa area of Kogi State were thoroughly washed with distilled water; hand crushed and then macerated using the pestle. They were then transferred into a 250 ml beaker and 150 ml absolute ethanol was added and kept away from light for 24 hours to allow proper extraction after which the content was filtered and the clear filtrate was collected for the titrations. The clear filtrates from the extraction were used as natural indicators, while the synthetic indicators - methyl orange and phenolphthalein - were used as standards. The result showed that the use of both white and red frangipanis is workable substitutes to synthetic indicators with the natural indicators having better workability with the phenolphthalein.