Use of Nicotiana Tabacum, Jatropha Curcas, and Ficus Exasperata for Treatment of Pus-Producing Bacteria

Abstract

The knowledge of orthodox medicine on the medicinal effects of plant extracts has continued to be a major booster to our modern healthcare delivery for over 80% of the world’s population, especially in the developing world. In this study, we examined the leaf extracts activities of Nicotiana tabacum, Jatropha curcas, and Ficus exasperate on common pus – producing bacteria that occur during secondary infection of open wounds. The initial plant extracts were extracted using methanol via the cold extraction method. The obtained extracts were fractionated via solvent –solvent extraction in the following solvents ethyl acetate, hexane, and distilled water. Preliminary studies carried out revealed that only Nicotiana tabacum was effective at inducing inhibitions on the selected clinical isolates, namely: Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus species, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella typhi. The antimicrobial assay of the chosen plant was done by agar well diffusion method using 20.0 mg/ml and 40.0 mg/ml concentrations of the selected plant extract. The selected concentrations (40.0 mg/ml and 20.0 mg/ml) exhibited different degrees of zones of inhibition. The mean zones of inhibition ranged between ca. 6.0 −14.5 mm. From the obtained result, Streptococcus species were the most inhibited. In addition, the Nicotiana tabacum ethyl acetate fraction exhibited a significant inhibitory effect when compared to other fractions such as hexane and aqueous fractions. Thus it is evident that ethyl acetate might be the best choice for extracting the bioactive components from tobacco.