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ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants are the most abundant natural sources of substances used in traditional medicine. The present study was conducted to evaluate the proximate content, the phytochemical and antimicrobial properties of Carica papaya seed extracts on clinical isolates. The Carica papaya seeds were collected from different sources and allowed to air dry, the dried seeds were grinded in an industrial grinding machine. The extract was obtained by maceration using distilled water and ethanol as solvents. The extracts were then subjected to proximate, phytochemical screening and antimicrobial assay. The components analyzed for proximate analysis, were moisture, ash, crude fiber, crude fat, crude protein and carbohydrates content of both aqueous and ethanol extracts were determined. The result of the phytochemical screening for both aqueous and ethanolic extracts showed the present of compounds such as saponins, phenolics, alkaloids and flavonoids. The microbes used for the antimicrobial assay were five bacteria: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella spp, Enterobacter spp and two fungi: Candida spp and Aspergillus spp. The antimicrobial assay revealed that Carica papaya seed extract had good antimicrobial properties with minimum inhibition of 100 mg/ml observed in Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bacillus subtils for aqueous extract, 1.04 mg/ml Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bacillus subtilis and 2.08 mg/ml Candida spp for ethanol extract. The minimum bactericidal concentration of ethanol extract in this study was 4.16 for Staphylococcus epidermidis and 8.33 mg/ml for Bacillus subtilis, minimum fungicidal concentration was 8.33 for Candida spp. The results from this study indicate that Carica papaya seed possess sufficient nutritional content and phytochemical components, indicating their potential use as supplementary antimicrobial agents and essential nutrients for both humans and animals.
