A. A. Hamid, O. O. Aiyelaagbe, R. N. Ahmed, L. A. Usman and S. A. Adebayo
The hexane, ethylacetate and methanol extracts obtained from the whole plant of Asystasia gangetica were evaluated invitro to determine inhibition of human pathogenic microorganisms made up of six bacteria and six fungi. The crude extracts inhibited the growth of twelve test organisms to different degrees. All the bacteria strains were sensitive to all the extracts at concentration ranging from 50 to 200mg/mL using the agar diffusion pour plate method. The inhibition of these test organisms were concentration dependent, activity being higher at higher concentrations of all the three extracts. The extracts showed higher antifungal properties on Candida albicans, Penicillum notatum, Tricophyton rubrum and Epidermophyton floccosum with activity comparable to that of the reference drug, Tioconazole. Preliminary phytochemical investigation of the extracts revealed the presence of saponins, reducing sugar, steroids, glycosides, flavonoids and anthraquinones.
