PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF AGAINST SOME CLINICAL BACTERIAL ISOLATES

ABSTRACT

There are several hundreds of plants that are identified reasonable sources of medicinal agents which dated back to the age long history of mankind globally. This study was aimed at examining the antimicrobial potential and the phytochemicals present in herbal products. Samples of Ekiema herbal drinks and Clara bitters herbal drinks were obtained from Oba market in Benin City, Edo State. Following standard laboratory procedures, the antibacterial activities and phytochemicals constituents were determined. The phytochemicals analyzed include Saponins, Flavonoids, Glycoside, Steroids, Tannins, Reducing sugars and Phenolic compound. Both herbal medicines contained flavonoids, steroids, reducing sugars and phenols as phytochemicals. Both also didn’t contain Saponins and glycosides. The results shows that antibacterial activities of Clara bitters cleanser on the tested organisms was as follows: Staphylococcus aureus (18 mm), Salmonella typhi. (18 mm), Escherichia coli (20 mm) and Enterococcus sp. (16 mm). While Ekiema herbal capsule didn’t show any activity to all test bacterial isolates, as there were no zones of inhibition. But there was activity against the fungal isolate Candida albicans with a zone of inhibition of 15 mm for Ekiema herbal medicine. Both herbal drinks were not effective against Shigella sp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The study thus revealed that Clara bitters cleanser has some antibacterial potential as compared to Ekiema herbal