Antibacterial Activity of Sida acuta Burm (Malvaceae) Crude Extracts on Clinical and Typed Enteric Bacteria

Aim: This study was carried out to investigate the antibacterial activity of Sida acuta crude extracts on some enteric bacteria.

Study Design: Experimental design.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at The Federal University Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State, Nigeria.

Methodology: Ethanol and cold water were used as extracting solvents. The phytochemical analysis and antibacterial activity of the crude plant extracts were carried out using standard techniques. The clinical and typed bacteria isolates used are Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Shigella dysenteriae. Commercial antibiotics were used as positive reference to compare the sensitivity of the bacterial strains.

Results: The results of qualitative phytochemical screening of the ethanol and aqueous extracts of S. acuta revealed the presence of alkaloids; tannins, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, phlobatanin, and terpenoid. Quantitative result showed that alkaloids and terpenoids were significantly (p ≥ 0.05.) higher in ethanol (9.41±0.06) and 7.66±0.06) compared to aqueous extract (6.61±0.05 and 5.55±0.05). The ethanol extract showed highest inhibitory effect (32.00±1.00) on clinical S. dysentariae and typed S. typhimurium at 200mg/ml. Highest inhibition observed for the aqueous extract at 200mg/ml was (24.67±1.03) and (24.33±1.03) for clinical S. typhimurium and E. coli respectively. The antibiotics sensitivity test showed that only ofloxacin was effective against the enteric bacterial isolates.

Conclusion: Findings from this study revealed the potency of Sida acuta, as herbal candidate for the treatment of human enteric bacteria especially on S. dysentariae, S. typhimurium and E. coli at 200mg/ml which validates the antibacterial potency of Sida acuta and its potential as an herbal candidate for treating human enteric bacterial infections.