IN VITRO ASSESSMENT OF THE ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF THE EXTRACTS OF SOME LOCAL MEDICINAL PLANTS ON AGENTS OF GASTROENTERITIS
IN VITRO ASSESSMENT OF THE ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF THE EXTRACTS OF SOME LOCAL MEDICINAL PLANTS ON AGENTS OF GASTROENTERITIS
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1995-11
Authors
MUHAMMAD, UMMU-KULTHUME HASSAN
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
An ethnobotannical survey of four communities around
Ahmadu Bello Univeristy Zaria was carried out to identify a number
of plants (42) used in the traditional herbal treatment of
gastroenteritis. These plants are either taken as infusions,
decoctions or concoct ions.(of a combination of two or more plant
parts).
Crude extracts of parts of ten plants with the highest
frequency of use were investigated for antibacterial activity.
Preliminary agar dilution test showed that extracts of six out
of the ten plants tested (viz: Bridelia ferrugenia, Khaya
senega1ensis, Piliostigma thonningii Psidium guajava, Terminalia
avicennioedes and Terminalia macroptera) possessed significant
antibacterial activities against all four strains of bacteria
tested. Extracts of Occimum grattissimum , Parkia c1appertoniana,
and Guerra senega 1ensis were inactive on the test organisms while
Slerocarya birrea was inhibitory to Pseudomonas aeruginosa only.
The minimum inhibitory concentration range was within
0.96-10.4mg/ml with the extracts of B. ferrugenia showing the
highest inhibition with the lowest MIC value of 0.96mg/ml for both
S. flexnerii and S. typhi . MIC values of 1.6mg/ml was obtained for
P. aeruginosa and 1.9mg/ml for E. coli. The highest MIC range was
shown by the crude extracts of P. guajava which gave a value of
10mg/ml for E. coli, S. flexneri i and S. typhi and 2.8mg/ml for P.
aerugi nosa Five of these active plants showed bactericidal activity
against some or all of the test organisms. The bactericidal
activities was confirmed by the tube dilution method with the
minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) in the range of 13-
28mg/ml. However only B. ferrugenia and P. thonningii were
bactericidal to all the test organisms.
Death curves of the organisms in the crude extracts
suggested that the bactericidal activities occured within the first
hour after treatment and by the 10th hour all the test organisms
were killed in the test extracts.
The biologically active principles were isolated by a solvent
extraction method using di-ethylether and aqueous sodium hydroxide.
All the active components of the 3 test extracts were found to be
located in the fraction containing acidic compounds thus indicating
that they are acidic compounds in nature.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL, AHMADU
BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE (MEDICAL
MICROBIOLOGY) OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY, FACULTY
OF SCIENCE, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA.
Keywords
IN VITRO, ASSESSMENT, ANTIMICROBIAL, EXTRACTS, LOCAL MEDICINAL PLANTS, AGENTS OF GASTROENTERITIS