Abstract

Microorganisms are increasingly developing resistance against commonly used antimicrobial agents, and the use of herbs in the treatment of diseases is becoming widely accepted. The aqueous and organic solvent extract of the stem of Parinari curatelifolia were screened for phytochemical and antibacterial activity by hole in plate bioassay procedure. The bacterial activity of aqueous extract of this plant was carried out against several bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Salmonella typhi, Klebsella spp., Bacillus Subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus.Phytochemical constituents present in the extract were found to include saponins, balsams, carbohydrate, alkaloids tannins, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, digitalis glycosides, phenol, terpenes and steroids. Water (w) fraction at 2.8 g/100 ml showed significant (P < 0.05) inhibitory activity against all the species of microorganism tested in this study and most effective against S. aureus andKlebsiella spp. (P < 0.05). Methanol Extract (ME) fraction at the same concentration was effective (P < 0.05) on B. subtilis and P. aeruginosa. Diethyl and n-hexane extract did not show any antimicrobial activity (P < 0.05). The results shows that different solvent extracts of same plant may have different pharmacological properties.

Key words: Parinari curatellifolia stem extract, phytochemical constituents, antibacterial activity, zone of inhibition.