Abstract

IN VITRO ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF EXTRACTS FROM LEAVES OF OCIMUM AMERICANUM L AGAINST SOME PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS

Bukola Tola Aluko* and Omotade Ibidun Oloyede

ABSTRACT

The worldwide increase of multidrug resistance in bacterial infections has impaired the current antimicrobial therapy, warranting the search for other alternatives from herbal sources. The antibacterial activities of ethanol, acetone, ethyl acetate and aqueous extracts of Ocimum americanum leaves against some pathogenic microorganisms were examined in this study. The potency of these extracts was quantitatively assessed by measuring the zone of inhibition. The results indicated that the aqueous extract showed the highest activity among all the tested extracts and inhibited the growth of almost all the bacterial strains. This was followed by ethanol and acetone extract. The ethyl acetate extract showed the lowest activity against the tested organisms. It could be inferred that the extracts of O. americanum leaves might be used as potential sources of natural antimicrobial agent.

Keywords: Ocimum americanum, extracts, antimicrobial activity, pathogenic, microorganisms.