ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION OF THE LEAF EXTRACT OF EUPHORBIA MILII.VAR SPLENDENS
OGAH CELINA ONOTSE1,*, IGBOKWE NWAMAKA HENRIETTA2, OWOLABI MBANG ADEYEMI1, ALABI FAIZAH ABISOLA1
1.Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
2Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 12(2): 199-207 ; 2020
ABSTRACT
Plant-based medicines have become popular due to their low toxicity both to man and environment. In Nigeria, the leaves of Euphorbia milii are used in the treatment of variety of diseases, including microbial infections. This study screened ethanol and aqueous extracts of E. milii leaves for phytochemical constituents and evaluated their activity in vitro, against selected microorganisms. The leaves of E. milii were collected, washed, air dried and subsequently ground into coarse powder. The powder was extracted by cold maceration in ethanol and sterile distilled water to obtain the ethanol and aqueous extracts, respectively. Similarly, aqueous extract of fresh leaves of the plant was prepared by cold maceration in sterile distilled water. Phytochemical study was carried out and antimicrobial activity tests were done using agar well diffusion method. Levofloxacin and Bifonazole were used as reference antibacterial and antifungal drugs, respectively. Results showed that both ethanol and aqueous extracts contained an array of phytochemicals. The ethanol dry leaf extract was active against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis while the aqueous dry leaf extract was active only against Bacillus subtilis. Aqueous fresh leaf extract was not active against any of the bacterial test organisms. None of the three extracts inhibited the growth of the fungal organisms (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Trichophyton rubrum and Mycobacterium globose) used in the study. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the ethanol dry leaf extract was 50 and 75 mg/mL for S. aureus and B. subtilis, respectively.
Email of correspondence: onotsec@yahoo.com;
KEYWORDS: Antimicrobial, Euphorbia milii, Phytochemicals, Ethanol extract.