Abstract
Background: Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogen causing life-threatening hospital and community-acquired infections with high morbidity and mortality rates requiring constant vigilance.Aim: This study aimed at investigating the antistaphylococcal effects of Tetrapleura tetraptera against different strains of multidrug methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) to indicate the need for its use in ethnomedicine in addition to its fruits being used in traditional medicine.Methods: In this study, the susceptibilities of S. aureus were investigated using multi-disc antibiotics and extracts of T. tetraptera by agar diffusion and macrobroth dilution methods.Settings: While attention has been focused on the fruits of this plant, it is necessary to investigate the pharmacological importance of its stem bark.Results: The antibiogram showed that 70% of the isolates were multidrug resistant. Nitrofurantoin and gentamicin antibiotics were the most effective whilst amoxicillin and augumentin were the least effective. The susceptibility of the isolates was concentration dependent as inhibition zones decreased with decrease in the concentrations of each of the extracts. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of acetone extract ranged between 0.019 mg/mL and 20 mg/mL whilst the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) ranged between 0.3125 mg/mL and 20 mg/mL. The MICs of the methanol extract ranged between 0.039 mg/mL and 5.0 mg/mL whilst the MBCs ranged between 0.3125 mg/mL and 10 mg/mL. Both extracts were more bactericidal than being bacteriostatic against all the isolates. The methanol extract was more active than the acetone extract as indicated by the varied inhibition zones and MICs obtained from the different extracts.Conclusion: This study revealed the great therapeutic potentials of T. tetraptera and validated its use in ethnomedicine and would be effective in the treatment of multidrug and MRSA infections.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most prevalent Gram-positive cocci found as transient normal floral of human skin and mucosal surfaces in 20% – 90% of human population (Falugi et al 2013)
The susceptibility of different strains of S. aureus was investigated using multi-disc antibiotics and different extracts of T. tetraptera by agar diffusion assay whilst the degree of the antibacterial activities of the extracts was determined by macrobroth dilution methods
Several studies have focused on the antibacterial activity of different plant extracts (Govindappa et al 2011; Olajuyigbe & Afolayan 2018) and acetone and methanol solvents have been referred to as junk extractor pulling out more phytoconstituents than other solvents (Eloff 1998), attention is rarely focused on the comparative analysis of their antibacterial or therapeutic potentials whilst some school of thought has indicated that these two solvents should not be used together in extraction because of the closeness in their polarity
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most prevalent Gram-positive cocci found as transient normal floral of human skin and mucosal surfaces in 20% – 90% of human population (Falugi et al 2013). A leading cause of hospital and community-acquired infections are associated with high morbidity and mortality rates, the high mortality rate of 6.0% – 46.5% because of S. aureus infections (Nickerson et al 2009) has made this pathogen an important subject of constant vigilance. MRSA infections have emerged as a major public health problem and a leading cause of nosocomial infections (Zhang 2001) and community-based infections such as soft tissue infections, septic arthritis, bacteraemia, toxic shock syndrome, necrotising fasciitis and necrotising pneumonia (Gillet et al 2002). Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogen causing life-threatening hospital and communityacquired infections with high morbidity and mortality rates requiring constant vigilance
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