PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECT OF SEEDS OF Monodora myristica ON SELECTED MICROORGANISMS

Abstract

The increase in the prevalence of effects of many synthetic antimicrobial agents and incidence of multiple drug resistant microorganisms has spurred scientists on the research for plant-based antimicrobial of therapeutic potentials. The Monodora myristica has been used in Nigeria traditionally as condiments and has been harnessed as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of skin infection and dysentery. Aqueous, n-hexane and ethanolic extracts of the seeds was screened for antimicrobial activity against pathogenic microorganisms implicated in causing vagina infections. This finding showed that the efficacy of the extracts was concentration dependent. Aqueous, ethanolic and N-hexane extract showed varying degree of inhibition with different magnitude against the test isolates. Ethanolic extract showed highest activities against Candida albican, followed by Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae with 21.5mm, 19.5 mm each respectively. The same patterns of of inhibition was also observed in N-hexane extract. The antimicrobial effect of the two extracts were statistically not significant. The extracts had minimum concentration that ranged between 150mg/ml and 200mg/ml. The ethanolic extract showed more inhibitory effects compare to the aqueous and n- hexane extracts. The ethanolic extract found to contain highest quantity of phytochemicals while aqueous extract has lowest amount of the phytochemicals. It is therefore can be affirmed that Monodora myristica seed extracts could be exploited as therapeutic agents to drug resistant microorganisms.