Antibacterial Activity of Stereospermum kunthianum against Some Bacterial Isolates

Abstract

Medicinal plants are known to possess bioactive compounds that can be used in the treatment of diseases. Despite the existence of synthetic antimicrobial agents, resistant strains of pathogenic microorganisms are continually appearing. Also, high cost of synthetic drugs and low potency of some synthetic drugs imposed the need for development of new drugs of herbal origin. This study was carried out to determine the antibacterial activities of Stereospermum kunthianum leaf and stem extracts against clinical and reference isolates of Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhi. The phytochemicals and antibacterial activity of the plant extracts were carried out using standard laboratory techniques. The extracts were tested for antibacterial activities and screened for phytocompounds. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of Tannins, Saponins, Flavonoids, Alkaloids, Phenol, Terpenoids and Steroids. The leaf extracts were more effective than the stem extract having zone of inhibition ranging between (26.12±0.17-10.25) for the leaf and (18.12±0.00-10.00±0.00) for the stem. The methanol crude extracts of the leaf exhibited the highest activities against both clinical and reference isolates with mean zone of inhibition ranging between (12.12±0.15-26.12±0.17) with MICs and MBCs ranging between 12.5-50mg/ml. These compounds could be responsible for the antibacterial activities.