Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the phytochemical properties and antibacterial activity of methanol, acetone, ethanol and aqueous extracts of fresh leaves of Spondias mombin (S. mombin) on some clinical bacterial isolates. Methods: Clean and fresh leaves of S. mombin were collected in Ondo, Southwestern Nigeria. The leaves were blended, extracted with methanol, acetone, ethanol and water. The extracts were evaporated to dryness using rotary evaporator and tested for the presence of saponins, tannins, cardiac glycoside, terpenoids, flavonoids, reducing sugars, volatile oils, alkaloids and glycoside. The extract were tested against Gram-negative bacteria Klebsiella pneumonia, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella typhi and Enterobacter aerogens; Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus by observing the zones of inhibition using agar well diffusion assay. Results: The study showed that the leaves contained saponins, tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids and glycoside. All the solvent extracts showed activity against all the test bacteria. The methanol extract also showed the highest activity against Enterobacter aerogens, zone of diameter (15.00 依1.89) mm, while the ethanol extract showed the highest activity against Staphylococcus aureus with zone of diameter (12.50依1.50) mm. The acetone extract showed the highest activity against Salmonella typhi, zone of diameter (17.50依0.29) mm followed by methanol extract showing zone of diameter (15.67依1.01) mm. The acetone extract showed the highest activity against Klebsiella pneumonia (15.17依0.67) mm, while the aqueous extract shows the highest activity against Serratia marcescens (14.67依2.68) mm. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the leaf extracts ranged between 10-90 mg/mL. Conclusions: This study showed that the aqueous and organic solvents extract of fresh leaves of S. mombin has anti-microbial activity against all the tested organisms

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