ABSTRACT

 Staphylococcus aureus infections are a burden to healthcare systems. Species ofS. aureus resistant to methicillin has become a threat in many developing countries. This study hence examined the prevalence of Methicillin resistant S. aureus amongst tertiary institution students and the antimicrobial potentials of two plant materials against the isolates. Samples ofurine. IIVS and nasal swabs were cultured on mannitol salt agar and the isolates identified using a combined colonial morphological and biochemical characterization protocols while the antimicrobial susceptibility testing was perfomed by the disc diffusion method. Methicillin resistance was detected phenotypically using cefoxitin discs. Out of the 29 S' aureus isolates, 13(52.0%) were recovered from urine, 7 (46.7%) from HVS samples while 9(45.0%) were from nasal swab samples. The antimicrobial susceptibility pattern ofthe isolates from the various samples obtained showed that the rate ofresistance was highest for ceftazidine (72.4%). Resistance to ceftazidime, cefuroxime and cefepime among the isolates were (72.4%), (58.6%) and (48.3%) respectively. Most ofthe isolates were susceptible to Gentamicin (58.6%) Ofloxacin (75.9%) and Ciprofloxacin (65.5%). Eleven 11(37.9%) were resistant to cefoxitin. The percentage rate of detection of MRSA from cefoxitin screening stood at 37.9%. Majority of the isolates were susceptible to the ethanol extract of both plant extracts at 200mg/ml concentration. The inhibition zone ranged from 8.9mm to 17.0mm for Dennetia tripetalia and 9.0mm to 15.0mm for Pterocarpus santaloides. The findings of this study suggests that these extracts possess compounds with antimicrobial properties that can be used as antimicrobial agents in new drugs for the therapy against pathogenic microorganisms.