Screening of some medicinal plants of Ethiopia for their anti-microbial properties and chemical profiles

In the indigenous health care delivery system of Ethiopia, numerous plant species are used to treat diseases of infectious origin. Regardless of the number of species, if any of such claims could be verified scientifically, the potential significance for the improvement of the health care services w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of ethnopharmacology Vol. 97; no. 3; pp. 421 - 427
Main Authors:	Geyid, Aberra, Abebe, Dawit, Debella, Asfaw, Makonnen, Zewdneh, Aberra, Frehiwot, Teka, Frehiwot, Kebede, Tesfaye, Urga, Kelbessa, Yersaw, Kidist, Biza, Teklele, Mariam, Bisrat Haile, Guta, Mulugeta
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 21-03-2005 Elsevier
Subjects:	Anti-Infective Agents - isolation & purification Anti-Infective Agents - pharmacology Anti-microbial activity antimicrobial properties Aspergillus flavus - drug effects Aspergillus flavus - physiology Biological and medical sciences Drug Evaluation, Preclinical - methods Ethiopia Extracts General pharmacology Medical sciences Medicinal plants Microbial Sensitivity Tests - methods Pharmacognosy. Homeopathy. Health food Pharmacology. Drug treatments Phytochemical screening phytochemicals plant extracts Plant Extracts - isolation & purification Plant Extracts - pharmacology Plant Structures Plants, Medicinal screening Staphylococcus aureus - drug effects Staphylococcus aureus - physiology traditional medicine Ethiopia Africa Medicinal plants Phytochemical screening Anti-microbial activity Extracts Screening Pharmacognosy Plant origin Extract Chemical properties Screening test Medicinal plant
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Summary:	In the indigenous health care delivery system of Ethiopia, numerous plant species are used to treat diseases of infectious origin. Regardless of the number of species, if any of such claims could be verified scientifically, the potential significance for the improvement of the health care services would be substantial. The objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the presence of anti-microbial activity in the crude extracts of some of the commonly used medicinal plants as well as to identify the class of compounds in the plants that were subjected to such screening. Thus, the crude methanol, petroleum ether and aqueous extracts of 67 plant species were subjected to preliminary screening against 10 strains of bacterial species and 6 fungal strains using the agar dilution method. A sample concentration of 250–2000μg/ml and 500–4000μg/ml were used for the bacterial and fungal pathogens, respectively. The results indicated that 44 different plant species exhibited activity against one or more of the bacteria while one species, viz., Albizzia gummifera showed activity against all the 10 bacteria at different gradient of dilution. Twenty three species inhibited or retarded growth of one or more organisms at dilution as low as 250μg/ml. Extracts of same plants species were also tested against six different fungal pathogenic agents of which eight species showed growth inhibition against one or more of the organisms. Trichila emetica and Dovyalis abyssinica, which inhibited growth of four and five fungal strains at 100ug/ml concentration, respectively, were the most promising plants. Chemical screening conducted on the extracts of all the plants showed the presence of several secondary metabolites, mainly, polyphenols, alkaloids, tannins sterols/terpenes, saponins and glycosides. The plants containing more of these metabolites demonstrated stronger anti-microbial properties stressing the need for further investigations using fractionated extracts and purified chemical components.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0378-8741 1872-7573
DOI:	10.1016/j.jep.2004.08.021