Abstract
Five bacteria and three fungi were grown and tested against the effects of crude ethanolic, methanolic and water extracts of Bridelia ferruginea leaves and bark. The leaf water extract had zero antimicrobial activity. The overall antimicrobial activity recorded zones of inhibition ranging between 9 and 20 mm. The crude extracts were not active against the fungi tested. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the active extracts was determined. Half strength (10 g/ml) concentrations of the bark ethanol and methanol extracts were the MICs against Citrobacter sp. and Bacillus subtilis. While quarter strength (5 g/ml) concentrations of the bark methanol and ethanol extracts were the MICs against Staphylococcus aureus andMicrococcus luteus. The phytochemical analysis carried out on B. ferruginealeaves and bark detected the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannin, cardiac glycosides, anthraquinone, phlobatinnin and saponins and was negative for anthocyanin. Key words: Bridelia ferruginea, phytochemical analysis, antimicrobial activity, zone of inhibition.  
Highlights
All over the world, several hundreds of plants are good sources of medicinal agents and are used in traditional medicine for many different purposes, including bacterial and fungal infections (Obafemi et al, 2006)
The results show that the diluted extracts have antimicrobial activities
The minimum inhibitory concentration for S. aureus would be less than 5 mg/ml while the MIC for Citrobacter spp. was 5 mg/ml using the bark-methanol extract (Figure 2)
Summary
Several hundreds of plants are good sources of medicinal agents and are used in traditional medicine for many different purposes, including bacterial and fungal infections (Obafemi et al, 2006). Ethnopharmacological uses of plants prevail among the Nigerian people. It has been pointed out by Baker et al (1995) that plants continue to play a prominent role in primary health care of about 80% of the worlds’ population. Over the years there have been alarming reports of multiple drug resistance in medically important strains of bacteria and fungi (Ozumba, 2003; Aibinu et al, 2004). The persistent increase in antibiotic resistant strains of organisms have led to the development of more potent antibiotics such as 3rd and 4th generation of Cephalosporin by pharmaceutical companies (Odugbemi, 2006). Many published reports have shown the effectiveness of traditional herbs against microorganisms. Plants are one of the bedrocks for modern medicines to attain new principles (Evans et al, 2002)
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