Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oil from Avocado (Persea americana) Seed and Pulp on Some Pathogenic Organisms

Introduction: Persea americana is regarded as a unique plant in many African countries. Its numerous parts are employed in the treatment of several diseases. The possible function mechanism of P. americana functions is under study.

Aims: This study was designed to investigate the phytochemical analysis and antibacterial effect of oil extracted from seed and pulp of P. americana using agar diffusion technique.

Methodology: The seed oil of P. americana was exhaustively extracted with a Soxhlet extractor from 500 g seeds and 200 g seeds of P. americana using di-ethyl ether as solvent. The extraction solvent was removed to obtain the oil which was then subjected to antimicrobial activity test to determine its activity against the following clinical isolates namely Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia and Candida albicans using conventional antibiotics as control. Phytochemical screening was carried out following standard methods.

Results: The result of phytochemicals screening was presented with alkaloids, saponin, flavonoids, polyphenol, tannins, steroids as present. The result revealed P. aeruginosa to have the highest diameter of zones of inhibition of 12.00 – 30.00 mm at the concentrations of 0.1 – 0.4 g/mL respectively. S. aureus had diameter of zones of inhibition of 10.00 – 20.00 mm at the concentrations of 0.1 – 0.4 g/mL. E. coli had diameter of zones of inhibition of 10.00 – 15.00 mm at the concentrations of 0.1 – 0.4 g/mL respectively. C. albicans had diameter of zones of inhibition of 8.00 – 13.00 mm at the concentrations of 0.1 – 0.4 g/mL respectively; and S. pneumonia had diameter of zones of inhibition of 8.00 – 12.00 mm at the concentrations of 0.1 – 0.4 g/mL respectively. The results of the antimicrobial test on the seed oil showed appreciable antibacterial activities against the test organisms. The result of the test organisms was susceptible to conventional antibiotics.

Conclusion: Oil extract of avocado pear (P. americana) will be helpful to many researchers in the field of finding antibacterial activities in plant; and the oil is recommended for treatment of skin infections inherent with these organisms.