Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Activity of Leaf and Stem-bark Aqueous Extracts of Diospyros mespiliformis

Objective: To investigates the phytochemical composition and antimicrobial activities of the leaf and stem-bark extracts of D. mespiliformis against some pathogenic microorganisms.

Methods: The leaf and stem-bark extracts of Diospyros mespiliformis from Ebanaceae family, which is used as herbal remedies for the cure of many ailments by natives in northern part of Nigeria, were collected from Mubi in Mubi North Local Government area of Adamawa State, air dried, pulverised, extracted by simple overnight maceration techniques and analyzed. Aqueous extracts of the aforementioned parts of the plant were screened phytochemically for its chemical constituents and subjected to antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella spp, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, Streptococcus pyogenes and Salmonella typhi.

Results: The results show that alkaloids, anthraquinones, carbohydrates, flavonoids, phlobatannins, saponins, steroids, tannins and terpenoids are present in both the leaf and the stem-bark extracts of the plant while glycosides are present in the leaf extract but absent in the stem-bark extract. The antimicrobial activity reveals that both the leaf and the stem-bark extracts of the plant, showed high sensitivity to Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella spp, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumonia, Streptococcus pyogenes and Salmonella typhi.

Conclusion: The phytochemical constituents and the antimicrobial potential of the plant part may account for varied ethnobotanical uses of the plants in traditional medicine in Nigeria, which if further purified can be used to source novel antibiotics.