Possible antimicrobial activity of <i>Morinda lucida</i> stem bark, leaf and root extracts

Abstract

Inhibitory activities of both aqueous and methanolic extracts of the root, stem bark, and leaf of Morinda lucida on Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi, and Salmonella typhorium was investigated in vitro. In vitro experiment was carried out using the agar well diffusion and disc diffusion methods with Gram-negative enterobacteria. M. lucida extracts were more active against all the tested bacteria than the standard antibiotics, chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin even at the same concentrations of 5, 10 and 20 mg/ml. The results of this study show that the extracts of M. lucida has the potentials of inhibiting the growth of E. coli and Salmonella species, thereby suggesting its potency in the treatment of infections in which E. coli and Salmonella species are implicated.

Keywords: Gram-negative, inhibitory activity, Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, enterobacteria, infections, antibiotics

African Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 13(3), pp. 471-475, 15 January, 2014