Phytochemical Screening and Antibacterial Activity of Ficus platyphylla Leaves Extracts

Abstract

Plants are rich in bioactive compounds, including alkaloids and phenolic 
compounds such as phenolic acids, coumarins, flavonoids, and tannins. These 
protective compounds in plants also have significant therapeutic benefits for 
humans. The study was conducted at Sokoto State University, Nigeria, the 
research involved collecting sample at Waziri Maccido road, Bazza Area, 
Sokoto and extracting the sample using n-hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol 
(cool extraction) and aimed to investigate the phytochemical and antibacterial 
activities of the extracts (n-hexane, ethyl acetate and ethanol). The bioactive 
compounds were analyzed using method adapted from Ahmad and the 
antibacterial analysis was carried out against standard laboratory strains of 
Staphylococcus aureus (Gram positive), Bacillus subtilis (gram positive), 
Escherichia coli (Gram negative) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram 
negative) using Broth Dilution method. From the result obtained, the mass and 
the percentage yield of the three fractions obtained from n-hexane, ethyl 
acetate and ethanol were 9.35g, 3.79%, 6.55g, 2.91% and 24.17g, 11.35% 
respectively. Ethanolic fraction contains more of the fraction than n-hexane and 
ethyl acetate. Saponins, phenols, flavonoids, tanins, alkaloids were all present 
in ethyl acetate and ethanol extract but absent in n-hexane extract. 
Anthraquinones was absent in all the three extracts but there was presence of 
steroid and cardiac glacosides in all the three extracts. The result of 
antibacterial deduced that n-hexane and ethyl acetate fractions have more 
activity on bacterial strains with zone of inhibition ranging from 2-21mm while 
the ethanol fractions show less activity ranging from 2-12mm. These extracts 
have shown the zone of inhibition of the commercial antibiotic Ampicilin (positive 
control) to be 13-27mm. The MIC/MBC result of n-hexane was 500/500, ethyl 
acetate 500-62.5/500-62.5 and ethanol 250-62.5/250-62.5 against all the 
isolates respectively.