Antibacterial Activity of Medicinal Plants Used in the Management of HIV/AIDs Opportunistic Infections in Njeru Sub County, Buikwe District

Abstract

Infectious diseases such as skin infection, chronic cough, stomach infection, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, warts, herpes zoster and others were claimed to be treated using medicinal plants. The study was aimed at determining the antibacterial activity and determination of bioactive compound of some medicinal plants used in management of HIV/AIDS opportunistic infections. A total of six plants were subjected to phytochemical and three out of six were tested against bacterial pathogens. The aqueous extracts of plants leaves of Pseudospondias microcarpa (PM), Callistemon citrinus (CC) and Spathodea campanulata (SC) were tested against two bacterial pathogens namely: Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The result revealed the presence of Saponins, Tannins, Anthracenosides and Steroid glycosides. Alkaloids, flavonoids and reducing sugars had narrow distribution among the species. The highest clear zones were found in PM against Staphylococcus aureus (21.18mm) followed by 20.07mm for CC and 19.03mm for PM against the same bacterium. For Pseudomonas aeruginosa 20.36mm, was recorded for PM, 21.3mm for CC and 20.16mm for Sc at different concentration. The antibiotic used as control revealed highest against all the tested bacteria. There was no significant difference between the bacterial activities of the extracts of the three plant species but it varied significantly across the different serial dilutions. Further studies should be conducted on phytochemical analysis to establish more active ingredients that may be used in the development of drugs by pharmaceutical companies.