THE ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES OF THE EXTRACTS FROM UVARIA CHAMAE AND ALCHORNEA CORDIFOLIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Traditional medicine is the most ancient art of medicine practice. thus, the use of medicinal plant in disease treatment and prevention can also be seen as prehistoric and their present use can be supported by the traditional optimization of their application in related disease control as reported by Trease and Evans (1983). Medicinal use of plants ranges from administration of the root, bark, stem, leaves and seeds from the plant. Many diseases have been handled traditionally and these include diarrhea, dysentery, flatulence malaria, bacterial and fungi infection.
Human health has been posed with critical problems due to pathogen including fungi and bacteria. Disease that are caused by microorganism are on increase worldwide. One of the major causes of death worldwide is infectious disease. In addition, widespread antibiotics resistance to already existing therapeutics, the emergence of new pathogen in addition to the revival of old ones and the lack of effective new therapeutics exacerbate the problems. The treatment of patient with bacteremia (transient presence of bacteria in the blood). Nowadays is becoming more complicated because of increase in microbial resistance against the limited number of available commercial antimicrobial agents. Hence, alternative therapies are needed to treat patients affected by pathogenic microorganisms…
The search for new for new antimicrobial compound is particularly important and strategies to improve the current situation include research to find new antibacterial agent of plant origin. Plant has been for centuries as drugs initially as traditional preparation and recently as pure active compound.
The Antimicrobial Activities Of The Extracts From Uvaria Chamae And Alchornea Cordifolia
Plant have a great potential for the production of new drugs useful for humanity. Ebenyi et al (2017) defined medicinal plants as plant that has been used in human disease treatment for ages because they contain compounds that possess therapeutic values. Research have shown that 75% of all medicinal prescription and formulation derived from plants and plant derived synthetic analogue. Chemical analysis and development of different forms of drugs is now currently based on medicinal plants for traditional medicine in developed societies.
Among many of such medicinal plants is Uvaria chamae and Alchornea cordifolia from the family of annonaceae and Euphorbiaceae respectively. The common name for A. Cordifolia is Christmas bush in Nigeria, it is called ‘ububo’ in Igbo, ‘ipaesinyin’ in Yoruba, ‘bambani’ in Hausa and ‘mbom’ in Ibibio. While the common name for U. chmae is bush banana or finger root, ‘mmimi ohia’ in Igbo.
Uvaria chamae is use days a medicinal plant to treat diabetes mellitus and other conditions such as bronchitis, gastroenteritis, amenorrhea, abdominal pain, dysentery and wound healing while Alchornea cordifolia is commonly used as a medicinal plant throughout its area of distribution. The plant has been locally used in medicine for the treatment of variety of ailment including inflammatory disease states and disorder associated with microbial infection. It has been highlighted through its traditional use in the treatment of convulsion, prostrate, leprosy and jaundice etc.
The leaves, stembark and fruit of A.cordifolia contains terpenoids steroidal glycosides, flavonoids phenolic acids, fatty acids ,tannins, saponins, carbohydrates and the imidazopyridine alkaloids . The leaves and root of Uvaria chamae contains flavonoids tannins saponins, and phenols.
Investigations carried out pharmacological activities of both plants validates some of the following activities where discovered. Antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, wound healing anti-diarrheal, anti-diabetic and among others bit for the course of this research, we will be focusing on the antimicrobial activities only. (antibacterial and antifungal).
Report shows that the leave of Uvaria chamae show more potency compared to other part. Ebenyi et al 2017. The assessment of antimicrobial activity of the plant was carried out quantitatively using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) studies. The MIC test measures the lowest or minimal concentration of an antimicrobial agent that will inhibit the growth of any microorganism while the MBC measures the lowest concentration of the antimicrobial agent that will kill the organism. A lower MIC value indicates that the less of the agent is required I order to inhibit the growth of the microorganisms, anti-microbial agents with lower MIC scores are more effective.
The Antimicrobial Activities Of The Extracts From Uvaria Chamae And Alchornea Cordifolia
1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Uvaria chamae and Alchornea cordifolia has been locally used for treatment of many ailments without detailed scientific his study was therefore designed to investigate the antimicrobial activities of the leave of A.cordifolia and the leave and root of Uvaria chamae extract( aqueous and ethanol).