Abstract
Purpose: To determine the antimicrobial activity and chemical constituents of ethyl acetate extract of Citrullus lanatus seeds.Methods: Antimicrobial activity of the ethyl acetate extract of the seeds of C. lanatus was evaluated against Staphylococus aureus ATCC 25923, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Bacillus subtilis NCTC8236, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 10145 and Candida albicans ATCC 24433 using standard microbiological method. Chemical constituents of the extract were determined with Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC MS) systems.Results: An oily, yellowish orange coloured extract with a yield of 18.7 % was obtained. The extract inhibited the growth of all test microorganisms at minimum inhibitory concentration range of 0.313 -2.5 mg/mL and minimum bactericidal concentration of 0.313-5 mg/mL. GC MS profile of the extract showed the presence of oleic acid (31.22 %), saturated fatty acid (23.85 %) and gamma tocopherol (8.79 %). Other organic compounds accounted for 36.16 % of the extractConclusion: Ethyl acetate extract of the seeds of Citrullus lanatus has antimicrobial effect against some Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria as well as C. albicans. Twenty-one compounds including fatty acids, hexamethyl-2-ethylacridine, gamma tocopherol and methylphthalate have been identified in the seeds.Keywords: Citrulluslanatus seeds, ethyl acetate extract, antimicrobial activity
Highlights
Plant derived substances have become of great interest owing to their versatile application [1].It has been estimated that 14.28 % of higher plant species are used medicinally and that 74 % of pharmacologically active plant derived components were discovered after following up on ethnomedicinal use of the plants [2].Citrullus lanatus is a plant species that belongs to the family, Cucurbitaceae
Different solvent extracts of the leaves, roots, flower, fruit pulp and stems of this plant have been evaluated for useful phytochemicals around the world, the few reports that exist on the seeds as a potential new source of antimicrobial agent in Nigeria were preliminary and unstandardized methods for evaluation of antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of crude extracts of other variates of C. lanatus seeds were used [6,7,8,9]
In this study all the test microorganisms were susceptible to inhibitory effect of the ethyl acetate extract of C. lanatus seeds (Table 1)
Summary
Citrullus lanatus is a plant species that belongs to the family, Cucurbitaceae. It is a vine-like (scrambler and trailer) flowering plant which originated from West Africa and often cultivated for its fruits. This species has two cultivars namely, watermelons Different solvent extracts of the leaves, roots, flower, fruit pulp and stems of this plant have been evaluated for useful phytochemicals around the world, the few reports that exist on the seeds as a potential new source of antimicrobial agent in Nigeria were preliminary and unstandardized methods for evaluation of antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of crude extracts of other variates of C. lanatus seeds were used [6,7,8,9]
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