Antimicrobial and Phytochemical Analyses of Sida acuta Leaf Extracts on Selected Wound Isolates

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been intensively screened for their bioactivity in order to treat various diseases in human. This study was performed to evaluate the antimicrobial and phytochemical properties of Sida acuta leaf extracts against selected wound microbes. The plant extracts were obtained sequentially using n-hexane, aqueous and acetone respectively in order of increasing polarity. The extracts were tested for their antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecium, Acinetobacter baumannii, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using agar-well diffusion method. The sensitivity of the test organisms to the extracts was represented by zones of inhibitions (mm) at different concentrations. There was corresponding increase in the zones of inhibitions (mm) on the test organisms as the concentration of the extracts increased from 64 mg/ml – 512 mg/ml. Among the plant extracts, the aqueous extract of Sida acuta leaf revealed significantly higher zones of inhibitions (mm) from 7.50±2.12 - 25.00±1.40 on all isolates. This was closely followed by the acetone extract while the n-hexane extract produced the lowest zones of inhibitions (mm) on all the test organisms except for Acinetobacter baumannii which has 9.80±0.42 at the concentration of 512 mg/ml. Results obtained on the phytochemical analyses of the aqueous and acetone extracts revealed the presence of tannins, saponins, alkaloids and flavonoids. Hence, the antimicrobial effects of Sida acuta leaf extracts has been revealed in this study, therefore its controlled use should be encouraged in the treatment of wounds and other infections caused by these microorganisms.   Keywords: Antimicrobial properties, Isolates, Phytochemical analyses, Sida acuta