2019, Vol. 7, Issue 4, Part D

author(s)
Odangowei I Ogidi, Dienize G George, Uchechi E Enenebeaku, Ngozi G Esie and Udeme M Akpan

abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that about 80% of the world’s population depends primarily on traditional medicine that mainly involves the use of plant extracts. The number of emerging multidrug resistant microbial strains is continuously increasing and has become one of the most serious threats to successful treatment of infectious diseases. In this study, antimicrobial potentials of the extracts of methanol, ethanol and ethyl acetate of Brassica juncea seeds were tested against different bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella typhi) and fungi (Aspergillus Niger, Mucor mucaralis, Tricophyton tonsurance, Microsporum ferrogenium and Aspergillus flavus) strains by agar well diffusion method. The extracts showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities, inhibition zones of bacteria strains ranged from 5 to 12mm for Staphylococcus aureus, 4 to 14mm for Bacillus cereus, 6 to 9mm for Escherichia coli, 5 to 11mm for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 10 to 16mm for Salmonella typhi and fungi strains ranged from 5 to 10mm (Aspergillus niger), 9 to 14mm (Mucor mucaralis), 5 to 7mm (Tricophyton tonsurance), 12 to 13mm (Microsporum ferrogenium) and 10 to 16mm (Aspergillus flavus). The result of the study supports the immense medicinal properties of Brassica juncea which has revealed a significant scope to develop a novel broad spectrum of antimicrobial herbal formulation.