Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Screening of the Leaf Extract of Diospyros barteri. Gurke.

Abstract:

Diospyrous bateri Gurke family Ebenaceae, has been commonly used by traditional medical practitioners as anti-infectious agent. In this study, preliminary screening of phytochemical constituents of D. barteri was carried out in addition to evaluating the antimicrobial activity of four different extracts of this leaf on some common bacteria species. The antimicrobial activity of methanol, chloroform, hexane and aqueous extracts of the leaves were tested using the agar diffusion method on two Gram positive, three Gram negative bacteria viz; Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Klebsiella pneumoniae Escherichia coli,and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, The preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins and tannins while other secondary metabolites were absent. The study amply demonstrated the broad-spectrum antimicrobial property of the polar extracts while the non polar extract exhibits no activity. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the methanol extract on Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were 1.20mg/ml, 2.24mg/ml, 3.55mg/ml, 9.12mg/ml and 10.0mg/ml respectively, while the minimum inhibitory concentration of the water extract on Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were 8.91mg/ml, 9.55mg/ml, 10.59mg/ml, 10.96mg/ml and 71.78mg/ml respectively.

Key words: Diospyros barteri, antimicrobial, phytochemical screening.