In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Gynandropsis gynandra on some Pathogenic Enteric Bacterial Isolates

Plants contain many biologically active compounds that have potential for development as medicinal agents. The study was conducted to investigate the antimicrobial activities of Gynandropsis gynandra (leaves and stem) and its major bioactive constituents (phytochemicals). The aqueous and ethanol extracts from the leaves and stem of the plant was tested using well Diffusion method for their antimicrobial activity against some members Enterobacteriales family (Escherichia coli, Shigella sp, Klebsiella sp and Salmonella typhi) isolated from diarrheic stool sample from Murtala Muhammad specialist Hospital, Kano. Preliminary phytochemical analyses showed that both stem and leaf extracts contain alkaloids, tannins, terpenoid, Anthraquinones, reducing sugar, amino acid, flavonoids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, resin and phenols. The result shows that the extracts demonstrated higher antibacterial activity against the isolates tested with the average zone of inhibition of 16.60 mm, 16.54 mm, 14.73 mm and 13.95 mm for Shigella sp, E. coli, Klebsiella sp and S. typhi respectively. The result also demonstrated that leaf extract is more effective than the stem extract. The ethanolic extracts of the plant showed higher zones of inhibition against test organisms (17.74 mm) compared to aqueous extracts (13.15 mm). There is no significant different on the susceptibility of the organisms tested against the extracts at p