Abstract
Methanolic and aqueous leaf extracts of Chrysophyllum albidum (African star apple) and Garcinia kola (bitter kola) were studied for in-vitro microbial activity using the disc diffusion technique. The aqueous and methanolic leaf extracts of Chrysophyllum albidum showed antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans but showed no antibacterial activity against Klebsiella pneumonia. The methanolic leaf extract of Garcinia kola inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia while the aqueous extract of the leaf inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Both methanolic and aqueous leaf extracts of the plant showed no antifungal activity against Candida albicans. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the leaf extracts of Chrysophyllum albidum ranged from 12.5 mgL-1 to 25 mgL-1 while those of Garcinia kola ranged from 25 mgL-1 to 50 mgL-1. The results obtained suggest that the leaves of these plants can be used in treating diseases caused by the test organisms. The further investigation on the crude extracts would characterize bioactive components of the leaves of Chrysophyllum albidum and Garcinia kola.
Highlights
The use of plants by man for treatment of diseases has been in practice for a very long time
The antimicrobial activity of methanolic and aqueous leaf extracts of Garcinia kola against the clinical isolates are shown in table 1
The results revealed that at 25 mg/mL, the methanolic extract of the leaf exhibited antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (16 mm) and Staphylococcus aureus (12 mm)
Summary
The use of plants by man for treatment of diseases has been in practice for a very long time. Various plant species have been exploited for their medicinal properties. Medicinal plants are plants which contain substances that could be used for therapeutic purposes or which are precursors for the synthesis of useful drugs [1]. Different parts of medicinal plants such as the leaves, bark, seeds, cotyledons and roots have been demonstrated to possess bioactive substances useful for therapeutic purpose [2,3]. Most of the plants growing in Nigeria possess medicinal properties which are utilized for curing various diseases. Medicinal plants have received attention of the pharmaceutical and scientific communities and various publications have documented the therapeutic values of natural compounds in a bid to validate claims of their biological activity. Attention has been drawn on the need to carry out further investigations on the antimicrobial activity of plants and their metabolites due to challenges of growing incidence of drug resistant pathogens
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