QUALITATIVE PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF METHANOL ROOT EXTRACT OF SENNA OCCIDENTALIS

ABSTRACT Medicinal plants have been playing an essential role in the development of human culture as it gives man food,shelter and medicinc since antiquity.This research work aimed at screening for the presence of phytochemicals as well as evaluating the antimicrobial activity of the root of S. occidentalis.Fresh root of the plant was cleaned,dried,pulverized,extracted using methanol by maceration method,screened for the presence of phytochemicals and evaluated the effects of the extract on some resistant pathogenic microbes using the agar plate disc diffusion and nutrient broth dilution techniques.The result of the phytochemical study revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannins, saponins, terpenoids, cardiacglycosides, alkaloids, and cardenolides. The susceptibility test of root extract of S.occidentalis showed that the extract had antimicrobial activity on all the test organisms which were Staphylococcus aureus,Streptococcus pyogenes, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and the fungi species Candida albicans. The antimicrobial activities presented as diameter ofzone inhibition showed high activity value in Staphylococcus aureus17.00±0.00mm,Streptococcus pyogenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae had same diameter Zone of inhibition at15.00+0.00mm,and Bacillus subtilis at (14.00±0.00)and lastly Escherichia coli and Candida albicans were the lowest which had same diameter Zone of inhibition at13.00+0.00at extract concentration of500mg/ml,as the concentration decreased,there was a reduction in the diameter Zone of inhibition, indicating a Concentration dependent antimicrobial effect. as all the test organisms were resistant at the lowest concentration of 62.5mg/ml, with diameter Zone of inhibition of (0.00±0.00mm). Thus, these findings have scientifically justified the use of this plant locally for the treatment of some pathogenic related ailments and has provided a clue for the need to isolate the active ingredient(s) responsible for the biological activity from the root of S.occidentalis.