Abstract

L.S. Kasim*, V.A. Ferro, O.A. Odukoya, Allan Drummond, G.E. Ukpo, Veronique Seidel, A. I. Gray and Roger Waigh.

Three Antimicrobial agents from the leaf of Struchium sparganophora were isolated by chromatographic methods and characterized. The microbial inhibitory activity of these compounds was investigated against Gram-positive, Gram-negative bacteria and fungi. The antimicrobial activity of some of these compounds was similar in some of the micro-organisms used for the tests except Klebsiella. aerogenes and the fungus Candida albicans where all the compounds showed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values between 50 and 6.25 µg/ml. Luteolin and 3 methyl 2, 6, hexacosedienol significantly inhibited the growth of the two fungi (P<0.05) while vernodalin did not show strong activity against Aspergillus niger with MIC of 100 ug/ml. These compounds contribute to the anti-infective use of this plant in folkloric medicine and also these compounds could be used as natural antimicrobial agents in the food preservation and human health.