PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIBACTERIAL ANALYSIS OF CHRYSOPHYLLUM ALBIDUM SKIN EXTRACTS

Abstract

Plants have been the source of many materials used in clothing, food and pharmaceuticals. They provide natural alternatives to synthetic compounds resulting in increased attention for underutilized plants. One of such is the African Star Apple (Chrysophyllum albidum). Over the years, many extracts and hydrocolloids of plant origin have proven effective in food and pharmaceutical applications. With most of these plants having historic and traditional application for the treatment of ailments and conditions, others have been used in formulation of drinks, concoctions and some as food constituents. This study seeks to identify the various chemical compounds present in the skin extract of African star apple found in Sokoto region and also to evaluate its antibacterial active agent (compounds) for the possibility of using them in the development of new antibiotics to reduce cost of health care and mortality rate due to resistance of bacteria to already developed drugs. The result for the moisture contents of the skin reveals that, the skin contains 29.27% of water. Cool extraction method was adopted to extract the skin using three different solvent (n-hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol) and also standard methods were used to assess the antibacterial activity of the extracts. The mass of the fraction obtained are 3.19 g, 1.90 g, 4.2g, with percentage yield of 6.38 %, 5.01 % and 15.23 % for both n-hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol respectively. The result of the phytochemical screening of the skin extract of African star apple obtained shows the presence of Alkaloids, Steroid, Tannins and Flavonoids to be detected, while antharaquinones, saponins and cardiac glycoside were not detected in all the three fractions.. The fractions were tested for antibacterial activity using 3 bacterial strains (S. aureus, E. coli and Shigella). The antibacterial showed that the fraction were to inhibit the growth of the bacteria  with zone of inhibition that ranges between 2-10 mm. Standard methods were adopted for both extraction, phytochemical and antibacterial studies.