Phytochemical and antibacterial potential of lime (Citrus aurantifolia) and lemon (Citrus limon) juices as bioactivators of charcoal

Abstract

Citrus juices are widely consumed because of their many health benefits and antimicrobial properties. Biological activators are preferred to the conventional chemical activators for safety and less health hazards thus the need to search for available indigenous biological materials for charcoal activation. Hence, the study on the potentials of lime (Citrus aurantifolia) and lemon (Citrus limon) juices as biological activators for charcoal. Freshly harvested lime and lemon juice were extracted using juice extractor and sterilized through filtration with membrane filter (0.45µl pore size). The phytochemical of the juices was determined and results revealed the presence of (carbohydrates, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, saponins, terpenoids, ketose(fructose) and reducing sugars). The lime and lemon juices were subjected to antibacterial screening by agar well diffusion method against the test bacterial isolates (Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella enterica subsp. entericaserovar) at 75%, 50%,25% and 12.5% concentrations respectively. The lime and lemon juice inhibition effects decreased with decrease in concentration. However, lime juice demonstrated higher inhibition across all concentrations in both test organisms with zones of inhibition (12-30mm) in Salmonella and (10-28 mm) in S. aureus while lemon juice demonstrated a low antibacterial activity across the different concentrations with zones of inhibition ranging from (12-17mm) in Salmonella and (9-24mm) in S. aureus. The phytochemical and antibacterial activities of lime and lemon juice revealed their potential utilization as bio activators.