Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Phytoconstituents, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the leaves of Persea americana Mill cultivated in Ghana

Article Number - B13A36455396

Vol.9(36), pp. 933-939 , September 2015
DOI: 10.5897/JMPR2015.5902 
ISSN: 1996-0875 

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Nathaniel Owusu Boadi*




 
Selina Ama Saah




 
John Kenneth Mensah




Mercy Badu




 
Sylvester Addai-Arhinand




 
Michael Baah Mensah









  Received: 23 July 2015   Accepted: 27 August 2015   Published: 25 September 2015 
Copyright © 2015 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 

     
The leaves of Persea americana are widely used for ethno-medicinal purposes worldwide. This study assessed the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform and petroleum ether leaves extracts of P. americana. Extracts displayed variable antimicrobial activities that were microorganism-specific. The methanolic extract displayed the most potent antimicrobial activities with the largest zones of inhibition (0-1.8 mm) in the agar diffusion assay and with the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in the broth dilution assay against a panel of microorganisms that includedBacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Streptococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. The ethyl acetate extract exhibited the most potent antioxidant potential with the lowest EC50 of 4.15x10-30 g/ml for the peroxide radical scavenging activities. The data supports the ethnomedicinal use of the leaves of P. americana for the management of infections and for other symptoms whose etiology may be linked to oxidative stress.

Key words: Persea americana, antioxidant, antimicrobial, phytochemical screening, minimum inhibitory concentration.
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