Phytochemicals Screening and Anti Fungal Activity of Vernonia Amygdalina Ethanolic Extract

Vernonia amygdalina, commonly known as bitter leaf, is a plant traditionally utilized in African medicine for disease such as diabetes, malaria fever and also skin conditions usually caused by bacterial, parasite or fungal. Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus Niger are fungal that are infamous for producing aflatoxins, invasive fungal infections in humans, especially immunocompromised individuals .the powered bitter leaf was extracted using the cool maceration method using ethanol. The crude ethanol extract was subjected to phytochemical analysis and antifungal activity using the assay disc diffusion method. The conducted phytochemical screening revealed the presence of phytochemicals, including saponins, alkaloids, tannins, phenols, flavonoids, glycosides, and terpenoids except for quinones .The antifungal activity demonstrated significant inhibitory effects against aspergillus Niger with percentage inhibition growth of 64.62%, 61.54%, 54.38%, 90.77%, 0% . The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were also determined. FTIR spectroscopy identified functional groups corresponding to alcohols, alkanes, and esters, suggesting their role in the observed antifungal activity. The findings of this study confirm that Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaf) is rich in bioactive compounds and the antimicrobial analysis demonstrated the effectiveness of the ethanolic extract in inhibiting the growth of the tested microorganisms, reinforcing its potential as a natural antimicrobial agent