Antibacterial screening of the ethanol and aqueous extract of the fruit peel of Persea americana Mill. against selected enteric bacteria

TL;DR: The general results of the evaluation considered the plant as a very potential source of novel antibacterial agents against Enterobacteriacea and ethanol, a better extracting solvent.

Abstract: In the search for novel antibacterial, the fruit peel of a medicinal plant: Persea americana Mill was investigated for activity. The study was to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of the crude ethanolic and aqueous extract of the fruit peel of Persea americana Mill against selected clinical isolates. The agar well diffusion method was used in the study. Phytochemical screening was conducted on plants which revealed the presence of saponin, fixed oils, carbohydrates, tannins, reducing sugars, protein, steroids, terpenoids and phlobatannins in both extract in addition to the aforementioned phytochemicals, anthranal glycoside was present only in the aqueous extract while alkaloids was present in the ethanolic extract. The treatments with significant activity were between 125 to 500 mg/ml for the antibacterial. Antibacterial disc was incorporated to check for the sensitivity of the bacteria, E. coli, P. vulgaris and S. typhi showed 50, 0 and 10% resistance respectively. The result of the antibacterial screening revealed the sensitivity of the bacteria to ethanol extract in this order E. coli> S. typhi> P. vulgaris with mean zones of inhibition ranging from 6 to 14, 3 to 15 and 3 to 8 mm respectively. For aqueous extract; S. typhi> S. vulgaris>E. coli with mean zone of inhibition ranging from 0 to 15, 0 to 4 and 0 mm respectively. There was a significant difference between the activity of the aqueous extract and ethanolic extract against these bacteria at 95% confidence level. The general results of the evaluation considered the plant as a very potential source of novel antibacterial agents against Enterobacteriacea and ethanol, a better extracting solvent.