The antibacterial activities and bioactive constituents of ethanolic and aqueous extract of parts of the tuber against ten (10) clinical pathogens were determined, using agar well diffusion and standard techniques respectively. The proximate profile of this tuber included moisture content, ash, crude protein, fat, fibre and carbohydrate with varying percentages. The tuber was recorded to contain higher amount of saponin with the average of 24 mg/g, followed by cardiac glycosides with 13.13 mg/g, terpenoid with 8.48 mg/g, flavonoids followed with 5.36 mg/g and tannin with 4.21 mg/g was the least among the bioactive ingredients. Except for Proteus vulgaris, Serratia liquefaciens, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus cereus and Citrobacter freundii, other test isolates were susceptible to the effect of the ethanolic extract of the peel of D. bulbifera at 500 µg/ml. High inhibition zones (between 17 and 22 mm) were recorded against 80% of the test organisms at 1000 µg/ml, except for 15 mm zone recorded against Bacillus cereus. The MIC and MBC of extract of D. bulbifera ranged in respect to the parts from 125 µg/ml to 500 µg/ml; and 250 µg/ml to 1000 µg/ml for peels and bulbils respectively. Antibacterial activity of the ethanolic and aqueous extracts of the bulbils of D. bulbifera was however, not profound in this present study compared to that of the peel. This study therefore, affirmed that D. bulbifera is a novel source of bioactive compounds which do not only enhance the antibacterial properties, but also ascertain its health promoting qualities.

Background: A. oxyphylla which is a significant component of traditional Chinese medicine have being reported by many studies to be of significant impact in cure for many infectious diseases because of their high pharmacological activities. In this study, the effect of organic compounds nootkatone, chrysin, tectochrysin, alpha-tocotrienol, oxyphyllol C, sitosterol and epicatechin extracted from the leaves of Alpinia oxyphylla were tested against multi-drug resistant bacteria Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella aerogenes and Proteus vulgaris; isolated from patients with urinary tract infections.The results showed that the bacteria were resistant to the commonly prescribed antibiotics and the multi-drug resistance among them was also high. The Multi drug resistance analysis showed that 13(76.47%) of the E.coli showed Multi drug resistance, however 10(76.92%) and 9(69.23%) of the multi-drug resistance E.coli were susceptible to nootkatone and chrysin respectively at the concentration of 30µg/ml. 100% of K. aerogenes showed multi-drug resistance meanwhile they showed the highest susceptibility to chrysin and nootkatone with values 5(71.43%) and 4(57.14%) respectively. 4(66.67%) of S. aureus showed multi drug resistance however 4(66.67%) of them were also susceptible to chrysin and nootkatone while 5(83.33%) of P. vulgaris showed multi drug resistance and 100% of them were susceptible to nootkatone and chrysin also at the concentration of 30µg/ml. Nootkatone and chrysin showed a high susceptibility to the multi drug resistance bacteria isolated from patients with urinary tract infections. The leaves of A. oxyphylla can be potential sources for extraction of compounds to combat the increasing menace of multi drug resistance bacteria associated with urinary tract infections.