Abstract
Treculia africana is a plant that is used in traditional medicine for the treatment of diverse ailments. To investigate the scientific basis for the use of the plant, the antimicrobial activities/potency of the root and stem bark extracts were evaluated against common gram negative and gram positive bacteria as well as yeast. The chemical constituents of the plant in addition to the effect of temperature and pH on its antimicrobial potencies were investigated. The phytochemical constituents of the dried powdered plant parts were extracted using aqueous and organic solvents (acetone and ethanol). The antimicrobial activity of the concentrated extracts was evaluated by determining the diameter of zone of inhibition against both gram negative and gram positive bacteria and yeast, using the disc diffusion technique. Phytochemical studies revealed the presence of glycosides, anthraquinone, free aglycone, saponin, steroids and polyphenols. The extracts were active against both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. The activities of the plant extracts were not affected at varied temperatures (4oC, 30oC, 60oC and 100oC), but decreased at alkaline pH. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the extracts on the test organisms revealed lowest MIC and MBC against Salmonella paratyphi, Salmonella typhi and Bacillus subtilis with highest MIC and MBC exhibited against Staphylococcus aureus. Generally, there was significant difference (p<0.05) in the antimicrobial activities of the test extracts and control antibiotics, with the control antibiotics exerting broader antimicrobial activity. Treculia africana demonstrated broad spectrum antibacterial activity and a potential source of new classes of antibiotics that could be useful for infectious disease chemotherapy and control.Keywords: Treculia africana, Underutilized plant, Antimicrobial potency, MIC, MBC, Phytochemicals
Highlights
There is increasing incidence of multiple antibiotic resistances in microorganisms in recent years, majorly due to indiscriminate use of commercial antibacterial drugs commonly administered in the treatment of infectious diseases
Researchers have turned back to traditional folk medicines or natural products to unveil the scientific basis of remedial effects such as antimicrobial agents
Source of roots and stem bark: Plant materials of Treculia africana were collected from the wild in Obite II, Etche Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria and identified and authenticated at the Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
Summary
Sterile filter paper discs (diameter 6mm for bacteria and 13mm for yeast) impregnated with 100μl of extract dilutions reconstituted in minimum amount of solvent at concentrations of 50 and 100mg/ml were applied over each of the culture plates previously seeded with the 0.5 McFarland and 106 cfu/ml cultures of bacteria and yeast respectively. To 0.5ml of varying concentrations of the extracts (20.0, 18.0, 15.0, 10.0, 8.0, 5.0, 1.0 0.5, 0.05 and 0.005mg/ml), 2ml of nutrient broth was added and a loopful of the test organism previously diluted to 0.5 McFarland turbidity standard for (bacterial isolates) and 106 cfu/ml (for yeast isolates) were introduced into the tubes. To determine the effect of pH, acetone extracts were treated at pH ranges of 2.5 to 10 using 1N HCl and 1N NaOH solutions respectively in series of test tubes for 30minutes.
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