Exploring the Phytochemical Properties of Prosopis africana Plants and Assessing their Antimicrobial Potential Against Selected Clinical Strains

Abstract

Natural products continue to play a significant role in drug discovery and development, and plants are recognised as a reservoir of myriads of active antimicrobial natural products. Prosopis africana plants obtained from Bauchi were explored in the research to ascertain the bioactive components present in the plant parts. About one hundred (100 g) grams of ground samples of the root, stem bark, and leaves of the plant were extracted (maceration method) using n-hexane, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate, acetone, and methanol sequentially in order of increasing polarity. The percentage yields for the crude extracts of the root, stembark, and leaves were 7.0, 6.0, and 4.0%, respectively, while those of acetone, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, and hexane also showed significant variations. The presence of alkaloid, tannin, flavonoid, saponin, terpene, cardiac glycoside, starch, resin, phlobatannin, and phenol in the phytochemical test is an indicator of the great attributes of the plant's parts on microorganisms. This was further confirmed on strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albican using agar healthy diffusion techniques. The antimicrobial results show a higher zone of inhibition at concentrations of 400 mg/ml compared to 200 mg/ml, 100 mg/mL, and 50 mg/ml of the extract concentration. It is therefore concluded that with the global quest to search for new antibacterial active components that arose as a result of multiple drug resistances, the plant parts (root, stembark, and leaves) of Prosopis africana can provide an alternative source of such bioactive compounds, thereby mitigating the increase in drug resistance among species of bacteria.