Antimicrobial Activities And Phytochemical Screening Of Piper Guineense (Uziza) Seed And Leaf Against Food Spoilage Organisms:- Ogbuagu, Esther

ABSTRACT

The antimicrobial activity of aqueous and ethanolic extract of leaf and seed of piper guineense was determined on three bacteria {Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp) and three fungi (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, and Pencillium spp) using agar well diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The ethanolic extract was found to show more activity than the aqueous extract on the isolates. The diameter zone of inhibition for the ethanolic extract (leaf and seed) range between 8 and 21mm while that of aqueous extract ranged between 8 and 17mm. The MIC ofthe ethanolic extract ranged from 3.125 to lOOmg/ml, while for aqueous extract, the MIC was from 3.125 to 25mg/ml. Escherichia coli was found to show the greatest sensitivity of all the isolates while Penicillium spp showed the least sensitivity of all the isolates. This observed difference showed that Piper guineense extracts contains antibacterial and antifungal compounds that may be useful for the discovery of new antibiotics. The phytochemical analysis carried out on the Piper guineense leaf and seed revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannis, saponins, glycosides and flavonoids. The presence of these phytochemicals supports the use ofthis plants as an antimicrobial agent.