Antimicrobial Studies and Phytochemical Screening of Extracts of Hyphaene thebaica (Linn) Mart Fruits

In vitro antimicrobial properties of solvents extracts of Hyphaene thebaica (L.) Mart fruits showed that ethyl acetate extract was active against all the five pathogenic bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Eschericia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae used in this study while methanol extract was active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella Pneumoniae. Hexane extract showed little inhibition on the growth of Bacillus subtilis and out of the three fungi, Aspegillus niger, Candida albicans and Penicillium sp. used in this study, only Penicillium sp. growth was slightly affected by high concentration of methanol extract. The phytochemical screenings showed that tannins and flavonoids are present in the ethyl acetate fraction while saponin was found in methanol fraction.