ABSTRACT

Medicinal plants are of great importance to the health of individual and the communities. The medicinal value of some plants lies in some chemical substances that produce definite physiological actions in the human body. The most important of these bioactive constituents are alkaloids, tannis, flavonoids and phenolic compounds. Many of these indigenous medicinal plants are used as spices and food plants (Okwu, 2001). An Ethno botanical and ubiquitous plant serves as rich resources of natural drugs for research and development (Kong et al, 2008). Medicinal plants based drugs owe the advantage of being simple, effective and exhibit broad spectrum activity. The revival of interest in the use and importance of African medical plants by WHO and many developing countries has led to intensified efforts on the documentation of ethnomedical data of medicinal efforts. This is because most traditional healers keep no records and their information is passed on mainly verbally from generation to generation. . Researchers are increasingly turning their attention to natural products looking for new leads to develop better drugs against cancer, as well as viral and microbial infections. In the coastal area of Nigeria, the plant Ocimum gratissimum is used in the treatment of epilepsy, high fever and diarrhea. Ocimum gratissimum (Scent leaf) is a perennial plant which is widely distributed in the tropics of Africa and Asia. It belongs to the family Labiatae and it as the most abundant of the genus Ocimum. In the southern part of Nigeria, it is called "Efirin nla" by the Yoruba speaking tribe. "Nichonwu" in Igbo while in the northern part of Nigeria, it is called "Daidoga" (Effraim, et al., 2003). Leaf extract of Ocimum gratissimum and Xylopia aethiopiea were analyzed against five pathogenic organisms. Staphylococcus aureaus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus fecalis, Pseudomonas 1 aeruginosa and Lactobacilli (Ijeh et al, 2004)