Assessment of the Antimicrobial Activities of Aqueous Extracts of Vernoma amygdalina and Piper guineense on Some Clinical Isolates
The antimicrobial activities of cold and hot aqueous extracts of fresh and dried Vernonia amygdalina (Bitter leaf) and Piper guineense (Uziza leaf) on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans were studied singly and combined using the agar diffusion and broth dilution methods. The outcome of this work shows that the different extracts lack antibacterial activity against the bacterial isolates tested, except, the cold aqueous extract of fresh P. guineense with mean zones diameter of inhibition (MZDI) of 27 mm and 12 mm for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, respectively; and the combined extracts of dried V. amygdalina and P. guineense with MZDI of 11 mm for Proteus mirabilis. However, all the extracts tested showed anti-candidal activity with MZDI between 11-19 mm, except, the combined cold and hot extracts of fresh and dried leaves of V. amygdalina and P. guineense. Overall, the V. amygdalina in particular, possesses only antifungal potential, while P. guineense possesses both antibacterial and antifungal potentials, hence appears to have broader medicinal benefits. Also, the cold aqueous extracts of both leaves proved to be more effective (P<0.001) than the hot aqueous, thereby making cold water a better extracting solvent for the active principles. Besides, extracts of the dried leaves seem to show wider zones diameter of inhibition (P<0.001) than the fresh leaves suggesting that processing (i.e, sun-drying) affects the antimicrobial outcome of these plants positively. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) ranged between 50-200 mg/ml, while the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) gave a range of 100-200 mg/ml. The results of this study further strengthened the earlier works on the medicinal benefits of these plants and their virtues as good pharmacological sources of antimicrobials.
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