US EPA

8256331 

Journal Article 

Chemical composition and antibacterial activities of some selected traditional medicinal plants used in the treatment of gastrointestinal infections in Nigeria 

Fagbohun Emmanuel, D; David Oluwole, M; Adeyeye Emmanuel, I; Oyedele, O 

2010 

5 

3 

192-197 

English 

Chemical composition and antibacterial effects of six Nigerian medicinal plants (Cymbopogon citratus, Bambusa vulgaris, Aerva lanata, Cajanus cajan, Sorghum bicolor and Nauclea latifolus) used in the treatment of gastroenteritis were investigated against three medicinally important gram negative bacteria using standard methods. The plant parts used for the assays were the leaves. The ash content ranged from 5.5±5.4 to 20.1± 3.4g/100g, the moisture was low: 0.92±1.1 to 3.2±1.2, protein had a range of 9.9±0.0 to 15.4±3.2g/100g, fat of 20.4±5.3 to 25.2±7.9g/100g qualified the samples as oil plants, fibre was high while available carbohydrate was moderate in all the samples. The plant samples would serve as good sources of Na, K, Ca, Mg, Zn and P but moderate sources of Fe and Mn while both Cu and Ni were not detected. The Ca/P was good in 66.7% and poor in 33.3% of the samples. The Na/K values were all greater than 0.60 thereby making them susceptible to the promotion of high blood pressure. The values of Phy: Zn, Ca: Phy and Ca x Phy: Zn showed that only C.citratus and B.vulgaris will promote the highest bioavailability of Zn among the samples. S. sonnei and E.coli were the most susceptible pathogens to the extracts of the medicinal plants while aqueous extracts performed better than the methanolic extracts. 

Antibacterial effects; Chemical composition; Six Nigerian medicinal plants