Antibacterial, Phytochemical and Antioxidant Activities of the Leaf Extracts of Gliricidia sepium and Spathodea campanulata

The methanol, ethanol and petroleum ether soluble crude and fractions extract of Gliricidia sepium and Spathodea campanulata leaf were examined for antibacterial activities, phytochemicals and possible sources of antioxidant. The antibacterial activity of the crude and fractions were carried out against nine clinical bacteria isolates using the agar well and disc diffusion methods respectively. S. campanulata crude and fractions extract possessed higher inhibitory potencies than G. sepium extracts. The antioxidant DPPH test was performed where appreciable level of both ferric reducing antioxidant properties and free radical scavenging activities were of better expression in S. campanulata than G. sepium. However, G. sepium extract has the highest concentration of phenol with a value of 1.7mg/ml and flavonoid content with a value of 0.46mg/ml. The highest phenol and flavonoids contents in S. campanulata were 1.2mg/ml and 0.56mg/ml respectively. The phytochemical compounds of the extracts such as phenols, alkaloids and saponin could have shown the high value in antibacterial assay. The crude ethanol extracts of the two plants was more potent in inhibiting the organisms, followed by the methanol extract and was least with the petroleum ether extract. G. sepium fractions extract inhibited the organisms with halos between 0-48.7mm while S. campanulata inhibited the organisms with halos between 0-49.3mm.