Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Screening of Partitioned Fractions of the Aerial Plant Parts of Alchornea Cordifolla

Abstract

have reported pharmacological activities of different plant phytochemicals which includes antihypertensive, anti-malarial, anticancer activities and several others. The phytochemical and antimicrobial studies were carried out on the hexane fraction (HF), ethyl acetate fraction (EAF) and methanol fraction (MF) of Alchornea cordifolia. The HF revealed the presence of Tanins, Flavanoid, Alkaloid and Glycosides while the EAF revealed the presence of tannin, flavonoid, saponin and steroid while the MF contained all the secondary metabolites tested except phlabatanins, and anthraquinones. The antimicrobial activities of extracts were comparable with commercial antibiotics. The Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) shows that HF inhibited the growth of E. coli, S. aureus, S. dysenteriae and Candida albicans at a concentration of 10 mg/mL while EAF and MF also inhibited the growth of S. aureus, E. coli, S. dysenteriae, Candida tropicalis and Candida albicans at 10 mg/mL. While the minimum bactericidal concentration revealed that, HF was bactericidal against E. coli, S. aureus, S. dysenteriae and Candida albicans at concentrations of 40 mg/mL while EAF and MF were bactericidal against S. aureus, E. coli, S. dysenteriae, Candida tropicalis and Candida albicans at 30 mg/mL. These research work revealed that Alchornea cordifolia obtained from Eastern part of Nigeria, as well possess antimicrobial activities and contains great phytochemicals which are of great health benefits to man.
Keywords: Phytochemical, Antimicrobial screening, Aerial