ABSTRACT

Plants used for traditional medicine contain a wide range of substances which can be used to treat various infectious diseases. Hence, methanol and aqueous extracts of Cissus aralioides leaves was analyzed for phytochemical, antioxidant and antimiprobial properties. The plant extract showed significant (P<O.05) antioxidant activities in both methtnol and aqueous extracts. The antioxidant activity of both methanolic and aqueous extract of C.aiaiiokles increased as the concentration increased with methanolic extracts showing higher antioxidant activity but both still lower than the standard (ascorbic acid).The methanolic and aqueous extracts of the test plant also showed ppresence of phytochemicals; saponins, glycosides, flavonoids, alkanoids, tannins and stcrol terpens. However, the antimicrobial activity of the plant extract was evaluated against three E. coli,S.lyphi,S. aureus and C. ce/h/cans using the agar disc diffusion method. The highest antimicrobial potentials was observed for the methanol extract of Cocci/jo/des against Sa/inone/ici spp inhibiting (25%). 18.5mm mean diameter of inhibition and aqueous extract with (25%)l5mm mean diameter of inhibition. While the rest of the three test organisms were resistant to the extracts. The Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) observed was 50rng/ml and 25mg/ml with methanol and aqueous extracts respectively. This indicates that C. aralioides are efficacious and can be used in the management of the disease cause by Salmonella spp. This study demonstrate that C. aralioides has antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, which could be attributed to its phytochemical composition.