Validation of antimicrobial activity of two local medicinal plants used in treating some microbial diseases

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2004-11-20
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Two plants, Bixa orellana and Borreria verticillata are used traditionally in treating various diseases including infections. Using the cup-plate method of antimicrobial bioassay, crude methanolic extract of B. orellana and its column chromatographic fractions demonstrated a very good level of broad spectrum antimicrobial activity with zones of inhibition ranging from 14mm to 22mm against the gram positive organisms: Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Streptococcus pvogenes; the gram-negative organisms: Escherichia coli, Pseudornonas aeruginosa as well as Salmonella typhi, and the yeast-like fungi Candida albicans, and Aspergillus niger. The Ethyl acetate extract and their chromatographic fractions, however, exhibited low or no activity, the highest zone of inhibition being 16mm. The bioactivit assay of the column chrornatographic fractions of B. orellana suggests that bioactive components of this plant are polar in nature. Similarly, the Petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and ethanol extracts of B. verticillata were tested for activity with the petroleum ether fraction and its chromatographic fractions being the most active. Unresolved Stigmasterol and β-sitosterol isolated as a mixture from the Petroleum ether extract gave negligible activity. Other isolated compounds designated CR1 from B. orellana and BV2 from B. verticil/ata were not analysed due to paucity of the isolates. Results of this bioactivity investigation on these two plants provided basis to validate the use of extracts of B. orellana for treating infected wounds and burns, diarrhoea, dysentery and sore throat, and B. verticillata for treating skin infections such as furuncles (boils).
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Health Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science, 2004
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