| dc.description.abstract | Over the years, antibacterial substances of plant origin have a very promising therapeutic prospective and can actually be effectively and efficiently used to treat a wide range of ailments, infectious diseases inclusive with minimized or even better no side effects at all as is the case with using synthetic antibacterials. Borassus aethiopum is a common tropical plant whose fruits and shoot are consumed by communities in the West Nile, Western, Northern and Eastern Uganda. This study investigated the phytochemical constituents and antibacterial potential of Borassus aethiopum fruit pulp and hypocotyl shoots collected from Soroti and Moyo districts respectively.
The fruit pulp and hypocotyl shoot extracts were prepared by macerating the mesocarps and then screened for the presence of phytochemicals. The extracts’ antibacterial activity was examined by the agar well diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Ciprofloxacin was used as a standard antibacterial agent thus positive control. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as the negative control.
The results showed that B. aethiopum fruit pulp contained saponins, flavonoids, carbohydrates, phenolic compounds and tannins while alkaloids, steroids and triterpenoids, volatile oils, proteins and amino acids were absent. The ethanolic hypocotyl shoot contained alkaloids, carbohydrates, glycosides, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, tannins and saponins while steroids and triterpenoids, proteins and amino acids were found absent. Both the bacterial test organisms were not susceptible to the fruit pulp extract of B. aethiopum whereas the hypocotyl shoot showed zones of inhibition for both isolates.
In conclusion, though both the fruit pulp and hypocotyl shoot showed a richness in phytochemical constituents, the shoot showed a higher concentration in comparison to the fruit pulp. The hypocotyl shoot showed antibacterial activity against both Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and this could be attributed to the high concentration of the phytochemicals. | en_US |
