EVALUATION OF ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF XYLOPIA AETHIOPICA LEAVES EXTRACTS AGAINST SOME GRAM POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE BACTERIAL ISOLATED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS

Abstract

Resistance to antibiotics by antibacterial agents resulted in the consideration for natural products with novel antibacterial activity that will help to manage or control the menace caused by resistant organisms. Therefore, this study was carried out to assess the curative potential effects of Xylopia aethiopica leaves extracts on seven fish pathogens: Aeromonas hydrophila, Staphylococcus iniae, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Samonella typhi, Escherichia coli, and Streptococcus pyogenes using pour plate method. The antibacterial activity and minimum inhibitory concentration
of ethanolic and methanolic extracts of X. aethiopica leaves were determined using standard methods. The ethanolic leaf extracts of X. aethiopica revealed antibacterial properties against all the pathogens tested except S. iniae and S. pyogenes while the methanolic leaf extracts displayed antibacterial properties against all the pathogens tested. The ethanolic and methanolic leaf extracts of X. aethiopica exhibited the highest antibacterial activities against Bacillus subtilis (20.50 mm) and Salmonella typhi (20.00 mm) respectively. No antibacterial effects were recorded in the negative control (distilled water). The minimum inhibitory concentration of ethanolic and methanolic leaf extracts of X. aethiopica was 450 µg/ml and 225 µg/ml respectively. This study attests to the possibility of using X. aethiopica leaf extracts in the treatment of bacterial infections in fish.