ABSTRACT

Studies were carried out on the phytochemical compositions and in-vitro antimicrobial activities of crude extract of Chassalia kolly and Sida verorncaefolia against 20 isolates of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). This involved phytochemical screening and antimicrobial testing of methanol, ethyl acetate and aqueous extracts of Chassalia kolly and Sida veronicaefolia using basic pharmacognostic procedures and agar well diffusion assay and broth dilution techniques on Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Alkaloids, fiavonoids, saponins and tannins were detected in all extracts.Tannin was the phytochemical that had the highest concentration in percentage (3.29% and 2.9 8% ) in the leaves of Chassalia kolly and Sida veronicaefolia respectively while flavonoid had the lowest concentration in percentage (0.88%) in the leaves of Sida veronicaefolia and saponin (0.14%) in the leaves of Chassalia kolly.The agar well diffusion assay showed that the methanolic and ethyl acetate crude extract of Chassalia kolly plant showed antimicrobial activities while the methanolic crude extract of Sida veronicaefolia exhibited little inhibitory action against few of MRSA isolates. There was a corresponding decrease in the zone of inhibition of the growth of the test organism as the concentration of the extracts decreased. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values of the methanolic extracts of Chassalia kolly and Sida veronicaefolia plants were 12.5mg/mi and 25mg/mi respectively and the highest being 100mg/ml while the lowest MIC and MBC of the ethyl acetate extract of Chassalia kolly was 25mg/mi and 50mg/mi respectively with the highest as 25mg/mi for MIC and 50mg/mi for MBC. Findings from this study revealed that methanolic extracts of Chassalia kolly exhibited significant antimicrobial activities on methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and thus suggests need to refine and standardize these extracts as alternative source of antimicrobial medicines.