Steganotaenia araliacea is a small tree up to 10 m tall, with leaves, which when crushed smell like carrots. It is exceptionally drought resistant but tolerates high rainfall. It occurs over a wide range of altitude. The plant is relatively widespread in Tropical Africa and is found in Mali, Cameroon and other regions of West Africa; Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea in East Africa and in a variety of locations in Southern Africa [1] . In Eritrea it is found both in open woodland and on riverbanks (1300 - 2100 m). Given the wide distribution it is unsurprising that in different areas it has been used in a number of ways in traditional medicine [2] . In Eritrea it is used in treatment of arthritis, chronic ulcer, snakebite, gynecological problem, hypoglycaemia, sore-throat, diuretic, dysentery, hypotensive and wound healing [3] . Elsewhere in Africa Steganotaenia araliacea has been used against malaria and other opportunistic infections resulting from AIDS [4] .

The analyses of the constituents of Steganotaenia araliacea were dominated by the observations concerning the occurrence of cytotoxic lignans, particularly in the stem-bark, leaf and roots. In 1973 Kupchan et al. reported the presence of antileukemic lignan lactones in Steganotaenia araliacea of Ethiopian origin [5] . Over the next 20 years there was extensive activity to investigate the structure of related lignans and saponins, mostly in those from Steganotaenia araliacea of West African origin [6] - [15] . In addition, these structural studies stimulated a flurry of synthetic chemistry [16] - [19] . Steganotaenia araliacea has been reported as a multipurpose plant and has wider applications in the traditional medical practices and thus certain researches are reported. A review of the studies related to the medicinal uses of the plant include: the antioxidant and antibacterial activities [20] [21] , diuretic activity of the stem bark [22] , antimitotic and antitubulin activity of stegancin found in that plant [23] . Moreover, the insecticidal application of the plant, as antiplasmodial [24] , larvicidal activity of the leaves [25] and anti-leishmanial activity was also published [26] . The different parts of the plant especially the stem bark have been studied; however the bioactivity and chemical constituents of the seeds of the plant were not reported. In this paper we report the first such study of the methanol extracts and essential oil of the seeds of the plant.

In this study, the methanol extract and hydro-distillated essential oil of the seeds of the plant were analyzed. During the GC-MS analyses, the excellent separations achieved by the GC (Figure 1) permitted the inspection of each of the peaks and the comparison of the observed spectra for each constituent with those spectra of the NIST library. The results of the GC-MS analysis of the essential oil and the preliminary phytochemical analysis are shown in Table 1 and Table 2.

Previously the essential oil composition from the leaflets of Steganotaenia araliaceae, from Cameroon, was analyzed and contains compounds like limonene, β-phellandrene, α-pinene, sabinene, β-caryophyllene and crypton [29] . In the present study, as indicated in Table 1, the GC-MS analysis of the essential oil of the seeds identified the presence of α-linalool, α-pinene, m-cresol, p-menth-1-en-4-ol, p-menth-1-en-8-ol, myristicin as the major constituents. Essential oils work at the cellular level and most have antibacterial, antifungal, insecti- cidal and other biological effects. Besides, there are certain essential oils that actually lower insulin needs for diabetics and reduces blood sugar fluctuations [30] . The GC-MS analysis of the methanol extract of the seeds showed the presence of falcarinol, apiol, scoparone, stigmasterol, myristicin, 1-dodecosanol, nonacosanol, 9-

Note: (+) = positive result; (−) = negative result.

hexacosene etc. The mass spectra of four common bioactive molecules found in the methanol extract are shown in Figure 2. These results justify the following comments: 1) Apiol occurs in other members of the Apiaceae- family and has had a significant role in the termination of pregnancy by provoking abortions [31] . 2) Scoparone (6, 7-dimethoxycoumarin) is recognised as a vasodilator, smooth muscle relaxant and ananti-inflammatory agent. It is an anti-asthmatic and has anti-hypertensive activity [32] . 3) Falcarinol, theanti-cancer compound found in carrots appears omnipresent in Steganotaenia araliaceae [33] [34] . 4) Stigmasterol is used in food supplements and is associated with a lowering of the risk of cancer [35] . The GC-MS results establish a number of candidates and show that the seeds of Steganotaenia araliaceae are rich in bioactive compounds. As shown on Table 2, the preliminary phytochemical analysis of the methanol extract of the seeds confirms the presence of alkaloids, fla- vonoids, carotenoids, coumarines, steroids, and phenols.

This plant has been recommended for different ailments including diabetes and hypertension by different herbalists. The preliminary results obtained confirm our starting hypothesis that aside from the well-established anti-cancer activity of the lignans from the roots of Steganotaenia araliaceae, this plant has other bioactive con- stituents, which on the one hand justify the interest in the plant of traditional healers and on the other merit a more detailed investigation of the seeds in order to elucidate the structure of the different compounds responsible

for the observed activities. Based on the GC-MS analyses, some of the structures of the compounds present both in the essential oil and methanol extract of the seeds of the plant include:

Steganotaenia araliaceae is traditionally used for the treatment of various ailments and its wider application can easily be noticed by the presence of the different bioactive molecules. Further studies on the efficacy and toxicity of the plant would be required to ensure its use for different ailments.

The Authors greatly acknowledge the help of Prof Ghebrehiwet Medhanie, botanist in the Institute of Technology Eritrea for his help in plant collection. Thanks are due to the Mass Spectrometric group in the University of Southampton, UK for their GC-MS analyses.