Heavy metal analysis and effect of the crude extract of the leaves of Brysocarpus coccineus and Ficus exasperata on some pathogenic organisms
Paper Details
Heavy metal analysis and effect of the crude extract of the leaves of Brysocarpus coccineus and Ficus exasperata on some pathogenic organisms
Abstract
The aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the leaves of Brysocarpus coccineus and Ficus exasperata were tested for antimicrobial activity on Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Salmonella typhii, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans using disc diffusion method. All the organisms tested against the water and ethanolic extracts of B. coccineus were susceptible to the plant extract except for Pseudomonas aeroginosa which was resistant to the plant atvarious concentrations of 50mg/ml, 100mg/ml and 150mg/ml. The mean zones of inhibition of P. aeroginosa by water extract of B. coccineus range from 2.0mm at 50mg/ml to 5.5mm at 150mg/ml . The water and ethanol extracts of the leaves of Ficus exasperata inhibited the growth of all the tested organisms except Candida albicans which was resistant to the aqueous extract of the plant at 50,100 and 150mg/ml . The water extract of the two medicinal plants exhibited less inhibitory effect on the tested organisms than its ethanolic extract. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, tannin, alkanoid, steroid, terpenoid and cardiac glycoside in both medicinal plants without traces of phlobatanin. Saponin is present in B. coccineus but not detected in Ficus exasperata. The result of analysis for heavy metals confirmed the presence of Mn, Pb, Cr and Zn in both plants within the recommended maximum range of 5.0, 0.3, 2.3 and 9.94mg/kg respectively. The result of this finding suggests the possibility of using the plants for medicinal purposes since they possess antibacterial properties.
Adebayo EA, Ishola OR, Majolagbe ON, Adekeye BT, Taiwo OS. 2009. Evaluation of the methanol extract of Ficus exasperata stem, leaf and root for phytochemical analysis and antimicrobial activities. African Journal of Plant Science, 3(12), 283-287.
Adekunle AA. 2001. Ethnobotanical studies of some medicinal plants from Lagos State, Nigeria. Nig. Journal of Botany 14, 71-79.
Afshin, M. and Masoud, AZ. 2008. Heavy metal in selected edible vegetables and estimation of their daily intake in Sanandaj, Iran. South East Asian. Journal of Trop med. Public Health 39(20), 335-340.
Akindele AJ, Adeyemi, OO. 2006. Evaluation of Antidiarrheal activity of Brysocarpus coccineus. Journal of Ethnopharmacol. 108(1), 20-25.
Akindele AJ, Adeyemi OO. 2007. Anti inflammatory activity of of the aqeous leaf extract of Brysocarpus coccineus. Fitoterapia 78, 29-36.
Amos, SL, Binda, L, Wambebe, C, Kunle, OF. 2002. Uterotonic protonic properties of ethanol extract of Brysocarpus coccineus extracts. International journal of Applied research in natural product 3(1), 29-36.
Anne, CF. 2007. Medicinal plants: A Botanical Garden for the Nation. The United States Bot. Garden, 121.
Bafor EE, Nwiko M, Nwwogu AM, Omogbai Ek. 2009. Evaluation of the proposed inhibitory effect of the aqueous stem-bark extract of Ficus exasperata on uterine preparation in vitro. Int. Journal of pharmacol 5, 94-97.
Balchin LM, Dean SG. 1997. Bioactivity of selected plant essential oil against Listeria monocytogens. Journal of Applied Biotechnology 82, 759-762
Barnabas CJ, Nagarajan S. 1998. Antimicrobial activity of flavonoids of some medicinal plants. Fitoterapia. 3, 508-510.
Codex Alimentarius Commission. 2001. Food additives and contaminants. Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards programme. ALINORM 01/12A, 1-289.
Casadevall A. 2000. Fungal infection, systemic: In Encyclopaedia of microbiology (2nd edition). San Diego academic Press. 460.
Doherty VF, Olaniran OO, Kanife UC. 2010. Antimicrobial activities of Aframomum melegueta (Alligator pepper). International Journal of Biology 2(2), 126-131.
Edeoga HO, Okkwu DE, Mbaeble BO. 2005. Phytochemical constituent of some Nigerian medicinal plants. African Journal of Biotechnology 4, 685-688.
Eric BG, Wonder MK, Wood E, Ama K. 2010. Arthritic and Antioxidant effect of the leaf eextracts of Ficus exasperate. Pharmacognosy research 2(2), 89-97.
Fagbemi A, Dimayuga R , Gracia S. 2009. Evaluation of the antimicrobial properties of unripe banana (Musa sapientum) and lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) on pathogens. African Journal of Biotechnology 8(7), 1176-1182.
Harbone JB. 1998. Phytochemical method – A guide to Modern techniques of plant analysis, (3rd edition). Chapman and Hall, London, 302.
Ibekwe VI, Nnayere NF, Akujubi CO. 2001. Studies on antimicrobial activity and phytochemical Qualities of Extracts of Orange peels. International Journal of Env. Health and Human dev. 2(1), 455-459.
Kumar SS. 2009. Estimation of Heavy metals in different Berberi species . Journal of chemical Botany 2(2), 105-112.
Larone D. 2002. Medically important fungi: A guide to identification (4th edition). ASM Press, Washington, 350.
Meyer JJM, Afolayan AJ, Taylor MB. 1996. Inhibition of Herpes Simplex Virus by aqeous extract from shoots of Helichrysum aureonites (Astoraceae). Journal of Ethnopharmacol 51, 41-43.
Nester EW, Anderson DG, Robert JCE, Pearsal NN, Nester MT. 2001. Microbiology: A human perspective. McGraw Hill Inc. Newyork, 820.
Obadoni OO, Ochuko PO. 2001. Phytochemical Studies and Efficacy of the crude extracts of some homeostatic plants in Edo and Delta State of Nigeria. Global Journal of Pure Applied Scince 7(3), 455-459.
Ofodile LN, Kanife UC. 2009. Effect of the crude extracts of the leaves of Dimorphochlamys manni on some pathogenic organism. Journal of research in Bioscience 5(3), 40-45.
Oloke JK, Kolawole BO, Erhun WO. 1998. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of certain compounds of Framomum malegueta, Fitoterapia 59, 384-385.
Rios JL, Recio MC. 2005. Medicinal plants and antimicrobial activity. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 100, 80-84.
Sofowora A. 1973. Medicinal plants and traditional medicine in Africa. Spectrum books Ltd. Ibadan, Nigeria. 436.
Ushimaru PL, Mariamu TN, Luiz CD. Ary, FJ. 2007. Antibacteerial activity of medicinal plants extract. Braz. J. Microbial. 38, 717-719.
Margaret Kudirat Ladipo, Funmilayo Victoria Doherty, 2011. Heavy metal analysis and effect of the crude extract of the leaves of Brysocarpus coccineus and Ficus exasperata on some pathogenic organisms. Int. J. Biosci., 1(2), 17-26.
Copyright © 2011 by the Authors. This article is an open access article and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license.