Antimicrobial Activity and Phytochemical Screening of Aqueous and Ethanolic Leaf Extract of Alchornea Cordifolia (utaezi)

The antimicrobial and phytochemical analysis of aqueous and ethanolic leaf extract of Alchornea cordifolia was investigated in this study. The results obtained in this study showed that the antimicrobial activities of the aqueous extracts on the test bacteria ranged from 11mm to 15mm with Salmonella enterica being the least (most resistant) while Bacillus subtillis and Staphylococcus aurues had the highest zone of inhibitions (most susceptible). The soxhlet extract had zone of inhibition ranging from 8mm to 10mm with Bacillus subtillis being the least while Salmonella enteric, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the highest (10mm). The results also showed that the test fungi were resistant to both the aqueous and soxhlet extract except Pseudomonas chrysogenum which had zone of inhibition 20mm in diameter on the aqueous extract. The minimum inhibitory concentration of the extracts on the test bacteria ranged from 200mg/ml to 250mg/ml and the soxhlet extracts ranged from 100mg/ml to 250mg/ml. The phytochemicals determined in the study were anthraquinol, phenol, alkaloid, phlobatannins, saponins, anthroquinone, tannins and cardiac glycosides but saponins anthroquinone, tannins were present only in soxhlet extract and absent in aqueous extract while cardiac glycosides was present in aqueous extract and absent in soxhlet extract. The presence of these phytochemicals can be said to be the reason for the antimicrobial activity of Alchornea cordifolia.