Comparative Evaluation of Phytochemicals and Antibacterial Activity of the Roots and Leaves of Anthocleista vogelii on Some Clinical Isolates

Abstract

Anthocleista vogelii have been shown to possess a number of medicinal properties. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the roots and leaves of A. vogelii for phytochemicals using crude qualitative analysis and gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometer (GC-MS) techniques, in addition to the antibacterial activity of its aqueous and ethanolic extracts against four clinical isolates namely Staphylococcus aureus, Esherichia coli, Proteus species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Isolation of clinical isolates, biochemical tests, antimicrobial sensitivity and screening for phytochemicals were all carried out using standard methodologies. Resulting replicate mean readings were analysed using analysis of variance and student t-test. The results of the crude screening showed that the leaves and roots contained alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, flavonoids, reducing compounds and polyphenols. However, GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of 13 and 14 phytochemicals in the leaves and root, respectively. In addition to terpenens, phytosterol, oxalate, steroid, tannin, phenols, saponins, alkaloids, anthocyanides, flavonoids, phytate, cardiac glycoside and cyanogenic glycoside found in the roots, the leaves also had coumarin. Alkaloid (22.6 conc. units) was the most abundant phytochemical in root but third most abundant in the leaves (15.6 conc. units). In the leaves, the most abundant phytochemical was phytate (20.4 conc. units) while the second was terpenes (20.7 conc. units). The results of the antibacterial sensitivity revealed varying activities against the test clinical isolates. For the leaves, the highest zone of inhibition of 18.00±0.00 mm was obtained with 100 mg/ml ethanolic extract against Proteus species while the least zone of 11.51±0.02 mm was recorded against E. coli. However, the highest zone of inhibition was 32.67±0.67 mm with 200 mg/ml of the aqueous extract against Proteus species for the root.  Based on the findings of this study, the leaves and root of A. vogelii are rich in phytochemicals with promising antibacterial potentials that is worth exploiting further.