In vitro antibacterial activity of ethanoic and diethyl ether crude stem bark extract of maesa lanceolata forssk against gastroenteritis causing bacteria isolates

Abstract

Introduction: The burden of gastrointestinal (GI) illness remains significantly high in developing countries mostly among children below five years in East African countries. I Gastroenteritis is further worsened by antimicrobial resistance evolving and spreading among bacterial pathogens as a public health problem of increasing magnitude. Objectives: To evaluate the in vitro antibacterial activity of ethanolic and diethyl ether crude stem bark extracts of Maesa lanceolata Forssk against gastroenteritis causing bacteric. such as; Staphylococcus aureus ATCC® 25923™. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Proteus mirabihs NCTC® I 0975™. Shigella dysentery A TCC® 13313™. Pseudomonas aeruginosa A TCC® 27853™. Salmonella typhimuriuum ATCC® 14028™ and Escherichia coli ATCC® 25922™. Methods: The study was carried out in the microbiology laboratory and the Pharmacognosy laboratory at Kampala International University western campus. The cold maceration method was used for extraction of Maesa lanceolata stem bark using 80% ethanol and 99.9% diethyl ether solvents separately. The agar well diffusion and broth dilution methods were used to determine the in vitro antibacterial activity of the extracts. Data for the zones of inhibition was analyzed using SPSS-16 by one-way Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). The statistical significance of the comparisons was considered at 95% level of confidence interval (p<0.05). Results: The stem bark crude ethanolic extract had a higher antibacterial activity against the test bacterial isolates known to cause gastroenteritis compared to diethyl ether extr.1ct. Both extracts didn 't have activity against MRSA, S. typhim.urium and E. coli. The lowest recorded MIC for ethanolic extract was 3.125 mg/mL against both : MRSE and MSSA whereas the least obtained MIC for diethyl ether extract was 6.25 mg/mL against MSSA. The ethanolic extract exhibited the lowest MBC of 1.5625 mg/mL against :MRSE compared to diethyl ether extract which had 12.5 mg/rnL against MSSA. The study showed that the gram-positive bacteria were significantly more susceptible to the plant extract than gram negative bacteria. Conclusion: Maesa lanceolata stem back is a potential source for development of new antibacterial drugs to combat bacterial gastroenteritis and also overcome the burden of emerging antimicrobial resistance.