ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECTS OF TERMINALIA CATAPPA (UMBRELLA TREE) LEAF-EXTRACTS AGAINST SELECTED BACTERIAL PATHOGENS
Abstract
ABSTRACT Medicinal plants represent a rich source from which antimicrobial agents may be obtained. Terminalia catappa (T. catappa) commonly known as umbrella tree or tropical-almond that grows usually in Southeast Asia and Africa. Due to its effective biological activities, it is used as a folk medicine in the tropical countries. The present study was conducted to evaluate the antibacterial property of ethanolic and aqueous leaf-extracts of T. catappa. The leaves of the plant undergone extraction based percolation procedure using 95% ethanol and absolute water as normally used in traditional medicine to produce the respective extract concentrates. Both extracts were screened for bioactive metabolites in which ethanolic extract was found to possess high contents of phytochemicals compared to aqueous extract. The extracts were then tested against three standard strains of bacteria which are Escherichia coli ATCC and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC at different concentrations using disc-diffusion method, with ethanolic extract being more potent. Erythromycin was used as a positive control. Thus, the results obtained in this research have shown high potential of T. catappa leaves to be used as natural antibacterial agent for the elimination of various bacterial diseases and this may be attributed to the presence of phytochemicals in the plant leaf.
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