Antimicrobial activity of leaf extracts of <i>Commiphora africana</i>

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Commiphora africana commonly referred to as African myrrh, is a shrub of the family Burseraceae. It has short lateral branches and forms small clusters of leaves at the end of the apex of the branches. It has wide geographic distribution in Africa, Asia and Middle East. In Nigeria it is found in the northern region, most commonly used to treat wide range of ailments. Different parts of C. africana like the bark, roots, leaves and fruit are used for in the treatment depending on the ailment (Kokwaro, 2009; Akor and Anjorin, 2009) In Nigeria and many other developing countries, 80% of the population depend on indigenous medicinal plants as herbal remedies to treat infectious diseases, especially in the rural communities where availability and easy access to good synthetic drugs is still a problem for their primary health needs (Lifongo et al., 2014). Moreover, the global health threat posed by drug resistance/failure and the slow pace of drug discovery and manufacture has made study of medicinal plants key in discovery of novel bioactive compounds. Nigerian scientists are now, with increased public awareness and improvements in methods, required to validate and gather information on the antimicrobial activities of indigenous medicinal plants as well as their bioactive compounds and safety (Nasir et al., 2015). MATERIAL AND METHODS Plant materials and Preparation Fresh leaves of Commiphora africana were collected at Gwale local government area of Kano state and authenticated at the Herbarium of the Department of Plant Biology Bayero University, Kano with voucher number BUKHAN 0114. The leaves were cut into pieces and air dried at room temperature for 10 days, after which it was grinded using sterile electric blender. The powder was stored in airtight bags for further use in extraction. Extraction of Plant Material The powdered leaves (30g) of C. africana were soaked in 300ml distilled water for aqueous extraction. Ethanol and petroleum ether extracts were obtained by soaking 30g of the powder in 300ml of each of the solvents. Crude extracts were then filtered using sterile Whatman No. 1 filter paper and concentrated with Rotary evaporator (Akinyemi et al., 2005).

Antibacterial Activity of Commiphora Africana Leaf Extracts on Some Bacteria Associated with Persistent Diarrhea

“…E. coli and Klebsiella sp were more susceptible to the extracts in comparison with the rest with average zone of inhibition of 14.90 mm and 14.20 mm respectively. The result of antimicrobial activity of C. africana leaf in this study was inconformity with the study conducted by many researchers [6,19,31]. Based on the result of the present study, the antibacterial activity of the extract against the extract was dose dependent.…”

“…Several studies were conducted to ascertain the phytochemical constituent of C. africana [6,10]. This finding is in conformity with that of Idris and Usman [19] who found the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids and tannins, saponin and reducing sugars in C. africana leaf extracts.…”