Abstract
The present situation of drug resistance in the world necessitates the need to intensify researches on the use of alternative strategies for effective control of infections using products obtained from plant extracts. Hence this study was undertaken to evaluate the phytochemical and antimicrobial properties of ethanoic extracts of Passiflora edulis var. flavicarpa seed by testing them against three clinically important pathogens namely: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. Agar diffusion method was used in determining the susceptibility pattern of the different seed extracts concentrations (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) on the test organisms (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans). The Passiflora edulis var. flavicarpa seed extract was subjected to phytochemical screening for presence of bioactive compounds using standard procedures. From the results, the zone of inhibition of the ethanoic extract at varying concentrations (100%, 75%, 50% and 25%) on Staphylococcus aureus ranged from 6mm to 18mm, Escherichia coli 5mm to 11mm and Candida albicans 5mm to 18mm. The growth of all the organisms was inhibited, through to varying degrees with Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans being more susceptible than Escherichia coli. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of tannins, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, steroid, glycosides, saponin glycoside, terpenes and cyanogenic glycosides. The antimicrobial activity of this extract is possibly linked to the presence of flavonoids, alkaloids, steroid, saponins and/or tannins. The result obtained in the study is an indication that passion seed has the potential to be used as a source for new broad spectrum antimicrobials.
Highlights
Infectious disease still remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in man
The result of antibacterial screening of ethanolic extracts of passion seed against test organisms are represented in table 1
A Tukey’s post hoc test revealed that there was no statistical significance between the mean differences at the concentrations of various zones of inhibitions of the tested organisms as that of S. aureus (12.75±5.12, p = 0.172), E. coli (5.75±4.57, p= 0.373) and C. albicans (10.75±5.25, p= 0.841)
Summary
Infectious disease still remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in man. Great efforts are being made to reverse this trend and one of them is the widespread screening of medicinal plants from the traditional system of medicine hoping to get some newer, safer and more effective agents that can be used to fight infectious diseases [1]. The passion flower is a fast growing perennial vine with a thick woody stem. They are mostly vines with some being shrubs and a few species being herbaceous. The leaves, stems, roots, and fruits of Passiflora species have long been used in folk medicine and are finding an increasingly important place in modern medicine [6]
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