Antibacterial activity of crude seed extracts of Buchholzia coriacea E. on some pathogenic bacteria

T. I. Mbata¹*, C. M. Duru² and H. A. Onwumelu³

¹Department of Microbiology, Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Owerri, Nigeria.

²Department of Biotechnology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria.

³Department of Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: theoiyke@yahoo.com. Tel: +2348032618922.

Accepted 8 October, 2009

   Abstract

The antibacterial efficacy of hot water and methanol extracts of dried seeds of Buchholzia coriacea against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus cereus, and Vibrio cholerae were determined using the Agar-gel diffusion method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and phytochemistry of the extracts were also evaluated. Results obtained showed that the methanol extracts of the dried seed was potent, inhibiting the isolates with diameter zone of inhibition ranging from 7.0 - 35.0 mm. The extracts inhibited the growth of the bacterial isolates in a concentration dependant manner with MICs ranging between 9.3 - 50 mg/ml, and  MBCs of 4.1 - 17.4 mg/ml. Phytochemical analysis of dried seed extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, anthraquinones, carbohydrates, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, glycosides, resins, saponin, steroidal rings, steroidal terpenes and tannins. The findings from this study could be of interest and suggests the need for further investigations in terms of toxicological studies and purification of active components with the view to using the plant in novel drug development.

Key words: Antibacterial activity, phytochemical analysis, Buchholzia coriacea, bacterial isolates.