African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (23), pp. 2645-2649, 3 December 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Phytochemical and antimicrobial screening of the crude petroleum spirit and methanol extracts of the stem bark, leaves and roots of Ficus thoningii (blume)

Ndukwe, I. G.*, Bello, A. I., Habila, J. D. and John, C.

Department of Chemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail ndukweilogeorge@yahoo.com. Tel: (234) 08036001692, 08054567774.

Accepted 30 August, 2007

Ficus thoningii which has some traditional medicinal uses was investigated. Phytochemical screening of the stem bark, leaves and roots gave positive results for carbohydrates, glycosides, saponins and alkaloids. Antimicrobial screening of the crude petroleum spirit and methanol extracts showed activity against Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Providencia stauti and Bacillus subtilis but no activity was observed against Salmonella typhi. The crude petroleum spirit extracts of the leaves and stem bark of the plant had minimum inhibitory concentrations at 50 mg/ml while the roots had no minimum inhibitory concentration at the test concentration. The crude methanol extracts of the various plant parts showed minimum inhibitory concentration at 50 mg/ml on all the pathogens tested for.

Key words: Moraceae, Ficus thonningii, clinical isolates, in vitro studies.