Phytochemical Constituents, Proximate Composition and Antibacterial Activity of Ethanol Extract of Costus Afer (Monkey Sugar Cane) on Escherichia Coli and Klebsiella Pneumoniae

According to ethnomedicine and traditional medicine, there are ways to strengthen the body's innate defences against microbial infections. A number of medicinal plants have been reported to possess antimicrobial activities (Nyanayo, 2006). This study aimed at determining the phytochemical constituents, proximate composition, and the antimicrobial activity of costus afer (commonly referred to as monkey sugarcane) on Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae . The plant samples were collected from a farmyard in Ughelli Delta state, samples where air dried for ethanol and aqueous extraction, the Soxhlet extraction method was used and the phytochemical constituents as well as the proximate analysis were determined using standard methods. The antibacterial activities of the ethanol and aqueous extract on Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae , was determined by the disk diffusion method. The result of this study revealed the presence of phytochemicals constituents including; flavonoids (10.50 µg/ml, 10.13µg/ml, 10.50µg/ml), saponins (0.95%, 1.02%, 1.02%,), alkaloids (1.45%, 1.20% and 1.20%), tannins (76.78 µg/ml, 78.34 µg/ml, 80.12 µg/ml), phenols (5.06 µg/ml, 5.15 µg/ml, 5.09 µg/ml) and glycosides (34.8 mg/100g, 35.60mg/100g, 37.81mg/100g). Proximate analysis revealed a moisture content of; 23.11%, 23.25%, 22.90%, crude protein content of 8.12% 7.98%, 7.83%, ash content was; 11.04% 10.86%, 10.80%, crude protein was; 3.76% 3.85%, 3.81%, fat was; 0.71%, 0.78%, 0.69%, while carbohydrate content accounted for; 53.26%, 53.28%, 53.97% of its total composition. The antimicrobial activity of Costus afer on Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae , showed that the organism was not sensitive to the ethanol and aqueous extract. The bacterial isolates showed greater resistance to commercially available antibiotics with Ciprofloxacin being the most effective against Escherichia coli , on the other hand Klebsiella pneumoniae , was resistant to all antibiotics used in the susceptibility test. The result of this study therefore shows that Costus afer does not have antimicrobial effect on Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae .