ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF COSTUS AFER (MONKEY SUGAR CANE) ON PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS

ABSTRACT

The antibacterial activities of ethanolic extracts of Costus afer stem and leaves were investigated on some pathogenic organisms namely; E. coli, Salmonella sp, Shigella sp, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus and Staphylococcus epidermidis using the disc diffusion method. Medicinal plants play a great role in human life and have substances that are used for traditional therapeutic and modern drug production purposes in primary health care delivery. Costus afer as a medicinal plant is commonly used for traditional therapeutic and other socio cultural purposes such as wrapping of indigenous food items, mat making, feed to small ruminants treatment of cough, measles, malaria, eye defects, hunch back and evil repellents. The major constituent of C. afer for modern drug production are steroidal sapogenins, saponins aferosides A.C and dioscin. 

Table of contents

Title page                                                                                                                    i

Certification                                                                                                               ii

Dedication                                                                                                                  iii

Acknowledgements                                                                                                    iv

Table of contents                                                                                                        v

List of table                                                                                                                 vi

Abstract                                                                                                                      vii

CHAPTER ONE

1.0           Introduction And Literature Review                                                              1

1.1       Introduction                                                                                                    1

1.1.2    Aims and Objective of the Study                                                                   3

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 Literature Review                                                                                                 4

2.1 Costus afer                                                                                                            5

2.1.1    Growth and Development                                                                              5

2.1.2 Ecology                                                                                                              6

2.1.3 Propagation and Planting                                                                                  6

2.1.4 Diseases and Pests                                                                                             6

2.1.5 Harvesting                                                                                                         6

2.2 Phytochemical of Costus afer                                                                               6

2.3 Contributions of Medicinal Plants to Public Health.                                           7

2.4 Photochemistry of Medicinal Plants.                                                                    7

2.4.1 Alkaloids                                                                                                            8

2.4.2 Anthraquinones                                                                                                 8

2.4.3 Flavonoids                                                                                                         9

2.4.4 Tannins                                                                                                              9

2.4.5 Saponins                                                                                                            10

2.3 Pathogenicity of the Test Organisms                                                                    11

2.3.1    Staphylococcus aureus                                                                                   11

2.3.2 Escherichia coli                                                                                                 12

2.3.3 Shigella spp                                                                                                       14

2.3.4 Salomonella spp                                                                                                 15

2.3.5 Staphylococcus epidermidis                                                                              15

3.3.6 Streptococcus spp                                                                                              16

CHAPTER THREE

3.0         Methods And Materials                                                                           18

3.1       Materials                                                                                                         18

3.2       Methods                                                                                                          18

3.2.1    Preparation of Crude Extracts of the Plant Materials.                                    18

3.2.2    Sterilization of Glass Wares                                                                           19

3.2.3    Preparation of Culture Media And Sterility Test.                                          19

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0       Results                                                                                                            20

4.1       Yield of Plant Extracts                                                                                   21

4.2       The Result of the Gram Staining And The Biochemical Tests.                   21

4.3       Antibacterial Sensitivity Assay of Different Extracts                                    21

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0       Discussion                                                                                                       24

5.1       Conclusion                                                                                                      25

5.2       Recommendation                                                                                           25

References

Appendix

LIST OF TABLES

Tables                        Little                                                               Page

1                       Statistical Analysis on Costus afer Leaves                  22

2                      Statistical Analysis on Costus afer Stem                      23

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1       INTRODUCTION

According to Coopasamy and Megwa (2006) plants contain chemical constituents that have great potential for medical use, therefore, these medicinal plants are used by both traditional companies. They are capable of preventing and fighting bacterial, fungal and viral infections (Mathabe et al., 2006, Bessong and Obi, 2006). They have been found to be effective in the treatment of skin disease, tuberculosis, diabetics, jaundice, hypertension, cancer etc. (Verma and Singh, 2008).

Medicinal plant play a vital role in the development of therapeutic agents. Verma and Singh (2008) reported that medicinal plants are important sources of medicines and presently, about 25% of pharmaceutical prescriptions in the united states contain at least one plant derived ingredient.

The antibacterial activities of many plant extracts against microorganism in vitro have been shown. For example, ginger extract were found to be active against Bacillus spp., Staphylococcus, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus (Iwu, 1993). According to Lamidi et al., (1995), Garcinina is also used in the treatment of Liver disorder bronchiotitis and throat infections. Extracts of green pepper, garlic and onion were bacteriostatic on Shigella dysenterial and salmonella typhic (Sofowora, 1983).

Although a lot of works on the antimicrobial activities of Costus afer on microorganism has not been done, but it has been used in the treatment of many disease by the traditional doctors. The juice is taken orally for the treatment of cough, respiratory problems, throat and stomach ache, while the boiled tender leaves are used as soothing fermentation for rheumatic pains. The leaf sap is used to treat malaria, it is also used as eye drops to treat eye problems and as nose drops to headache. The water extract of the root is used to treat diarrhea and amoebic dysentery. The stem sap applied to treat urethral discharge, veneral diseases, jaundice and to prevent miscarriages.

However, Odoemena et al., (2008) reported that the extracts of the leaves, stems and roots of costus after showed significant antibacterial activity in vitro against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, Salmonella and Shigella spp, Staphylococcus epidemidis.     

The ability of microorganism to develop resistance against many antibiotics due to the indiscriminate use of antimicrobial drugs (Ahmed et al., 1998) and the side effects of antibiotics (Cunha, 2001) have allowed traditional medicine to serve as a source of alternative medicine, new pharmaceuticals and health care products (Reddy and Jose, 2010). Commented that the usage of antimicrobial compounds of medicinal plants has advantages over the synthetic antibiotics, since they have little or no side effects, better patient tolerance and relatively less expensive. Non availability of rigid quality control profile fro herbal materials, herbal formulations, heavy microbial load resulting from the plant contamination, shelf life determination in terms of stability and preservation, particularly on liquid dosage forms have posed important fundamental challenges in the herbal drug industry (Verma and Singh, 2008, Elujoba et al., 2005).

However according to Verma and Singh (2008), the practice of herbal medicines is still in progress, since it has made a great contribution toward the maintenance of human health. The world health organization has for several decades, supported, promoted and assisted the development of traditional medicine in the bid to move the African health Agenda forward, particularly for the less- developed countries of the world (Elujoba, et al., 2005).

1.1.2    AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

To determine the antibacterial activities of Costus afer extracts on some pathogenic microorganism such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella, Shigella, and to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of the extracts on the pathogens.

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