PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL AND IN VITRO CONTROL OF SELECTED PATHOGENIC ORGANISMS BY ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF GARCINIA KOLA SEEDS
Date
2014Author
Obey, Jackie K
Anthoney, Swamy T
Mutuku, Ngule Chrispus
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Garcinia kola is cultivated for its economic importance. The plant is mainly used
as a medicinal herb in West Africa. Although it is bitter the plant is used as a snack
and a stimulant due to the high content of caffeine in the seeds of the plant. The
current study was done to investigate the antibacterial activity of the plant seeds
and to analyse the presence of important pharmaceutical compounds. From the
study the plant seeds were found to contain tannins, saponins, flavonoids,
terpenoids, glycosides and alkaloids but phenols and steroids were found to be
absent in the plant seeds. Among all the organisms tested with the ethanol extract
of G. kola, only B. cereus with an inhibition zone of 10.17±0.477 and E. coli with
an inhibition zone of 12.83±0.833 were inhibited. All other organisms were not
inhibited. The penicillin control showed large zones of inhibition and DMSO did
not show any zones of inhibition. The data obtained in this research is a scientific
justification of the plants traditional use in the treatment of various stomach
problems. From this research it is worthy to recommend the plant seeds for the
treatment of diarrhea caused by E.coli and all the ailments caused by B. cereus,
however further research needs to be done to isolate the pharmaceutical
compounds, investigate their mode of action and the effect of the same in the in
vivo environment.