PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CRATEVA ADANSONII DC LEAVES AND STEM BARK EXTRACTS AGAINST SOME PATHOGENIC BACTERIA

Abstract

Plants have widely been used as sources of both traditional and modern medicine especially in the era of antimicrobial resistance, this necessitated the need to embark on current research on phytochemical analysis and antibacterial activity of Crateva adonsonii DC leaves and stem bark          crude extracts against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi. The extraction was done using chloroform, hexane and methanol. Phytochemical analysis was determined while the antibacterial activity of the plant extracts was carried out using agar-well diffusion method with the determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Phytochemical constituents of leaves and stem bark of the plant revealed the presence of anthraquinones, flavanoids, alkaloids, balsams, saponins, saponins glycosides, steroids, tannins and volatile oil.  Stem extract of the plant indicated no antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi but highly effective against Staphylococcus aureus with the highest zone of inhibition of 30 mm and 20 mm as the lowest. However, the leaf extracts of hexane and methanol indicated antibacterial activity against all the test organisms with 30 mm as the highest zone of inhibition and 10 mm as the lowest. Methanolic extracts of both leaves and stem bark had an MIC value of 12.5 mg/ml against Staphylococcus aureus while the same extracts have the MBC of 25 mg/ml. The study showed that there is a possibility of using Crateva adonsonii DC extracts serve as remedy for infections caused by the test isolates.