Antimicrobial Screening and Therapeutic Potentials of Crude Extracts of Plants Used as Anti-Malarial Remedies in Ibo-Nigeria Folkloric Medicine

Abstract

An antimicrobial agent is a substance that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth. The use of substances with antimicrobial properties is known to have been a common practice for at least 2000 years. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used specific moulds and plant extracts to treat infections. More recently, microbiologists such as Alexander Fleming, Louis Pasture and Jules Francois Joubert have discovered and developed various antimicrobial agents which have been used to treat so many infections that were hitherto untreatable and fatal to mankind. From these initial antimicrobial agents numerous other antimicrobial agents have been derived and used to treat a wide range of infections.Antimalarial agents are amongst the numerous therapeutic agents that abound in plants and herbs. Plants and herbs with antimalarial properties have been successfully employed in the treatment of malaria and other related ailments. It has also been observed that many antimalarial agents possess significant antimicrobial activities and an effort to corroborate this observation is attempted here. The study was designed to evaluate the antimicrobial properties of plants used as anti - malarial remedies in Ibo-Nigerian folkloric medicine. Twenty (20) plants used as anti-malarial remedies in Ibo traditional medicine including Monodora myristica were sun-dried, milled and extracted by cold maceration with 95% methanol. Penicillin G, chloramphenicol and nystatin solution  were used as controls for the screening. These solutions together with the controls were standardized to 10mg/ml solution in dimethy sulphoxide solutions. The standardized solutions of the extracts including the controls were then evaluated for anti-microbial activity against some gram-positive bacteria (B. subtilis, Staph aureus), gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella, Ps. Aeruguosa, S. typhi, E. coli), the yeast (C.albicans) and the mould (Aspergillus niger) using the agar ditch method. The results show that P. guajava (leaves) and M. myristica (seeds) were the most active against B. subtitis. M. myristica (seed) was more active against K. pneumoniae than the control; no other plant extract had significant activity against this organism. None of the extracts was active against S. aureus. Extracts of C. ferruginea (leaves and stem bark), N. latifolia (leaves), N. laeris (leaves) and E. globululus (leaves) were active against S. typhi. C. ferruginea (leaves and stem bark), N. latifolia (leaves), K. senegalesis (leaves) and E. globules (stem bark), P. guajava (leave) and M. myristica   (seeds) were active against E. coli with M. myrstica (the most active) being more active than the control.  None of the plants extracts was active against C. albicans. Only C. ferrugnea (stem bark) and M. myristica (seeds) were active against A.niger. Monodora myristica (seed extract) was generally the most active and most interesting of all the twenty (20) plant extracts screened. The study concluded that many plants used as anti - malarial remedies in Ibo - Nigeria  folkloric medicine possess significant anti - microbial properties against various micro – organisms, the most active being Monodora myristca (seed), followed by Psidium guajava (leaves), and Pterocarpus santalanoides (stem bark).

Keywords: Antimicrobial properties, Anti - malarial remedies, Preliminary screening, Folkloric medicine, Ibo - Nigeria.