Antimicrobial activity of the crude extracts and isolated fractions of Garcinia kola Heckel stem bark

Abstract

The stem bark of Garcinia kola, commonly used for various ailments in traditional medicine in Nigeria was examined for antimicrobial activity. Crude chloroform and methanolic extracts and fractions isolated from the chloroform extract using column chromatography were screened for in-vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities. As tested using agar cup diffusion method on Staphylococcus aureus (NCTC 6571), Escherichia coli (NCTC 9001), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (NCTC 6750), Bacillus cereus (Lab. Stock), Candida albicans .(NCTC 7534) and Aspergillus niger (Lab. Stock), the crude extracts showed good activity at 10 and 20mg/ml respectively. The 14 fractions isolated from the column chromatography also showed varying but significant degree of activity on most of the tested organisms at lOOpg/ml. The study has shown that G. Kola bark has antimicrobial activities that justify its uses in traditional medicine in Nigeria as anti-infective agent. Also, the fact that most fractions showed antimicrobial activity is an indication that G. Kola bark has many antimicrobial constituents which are different but closely related.