Antibacterial profile of extracts of Combretum micranthum G. Don against resistant and sensitive nosocomial isolates.

ABSTRACT

Combretum micranthun G. Don (Combretaceae) is reputed in folk medicine for its anti-infective properties. In this study, we screened aqueous and methanol extracts of Combretum micranthun for antibacterial activities against nosocomial bacterial isolates. The methanolic and aqueous extracts of the leaves, root-bark and stem-bark were screened against the 25 different nosocomial isolates each of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pyogenes and Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from patients presenting with various ailment at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu using the agar well diffusion technique. The extracts of Combretum micranthun exhibited antimicrobial activities against both Gram-negative and the Gram-positive isolates including Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureaus. Generally, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococus pyogenes showed the highest level of susceptibility to the extracts of Combretum micranthun. The hot aqueous, the methanol and the cold aqueous extracts were more effective than other extracts in inhibiting all the isolates tested. The extracts of the plant C. micranthum G. Don showed high antimicrobial effectiveness against the different 200 clinical isolates of both Gram positive and Gram negative isolates screened and could therefore be harnessed as a potent antibacterial agents or could possibly provide leads for the synthesis of novel anti-infective agents.