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Ten Nigerian plants suggested from their ethnomedical uses to possess antimicrobial and antioxidant activities were studied for their anti-microbial and anti-oxidant properties. Antimicrobial activity was tested against Escherichia coli NCTC 10418, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Candida albicans, Candida pseudotropicalis and Trichophyton rubrum (clinical isolate). Trichilia heudelotti leaf extract showed both antibacterial and antifungal activities and was the most active against all the strains of bacteria tested. Boerhavia diffusa, Markhamia tomentosa and T. heudelotti leaf extracts inhibited the gram negative bacteria E.coli and P. aeruginosa strains whereas those of M. tomentosa, T. heudelotti and Sphenoceutrum jollyamum root inhibited at least one of the fungi tested. At a concentration of 312 µg/ml, hexane and chloroform fractions of T. heudelotti extract inhibited 6 and 14% of the fifty mult-idrug resistant bacteria isolates from clinical infectins, respectively. At ≤ 5mg/ml, the CHCl 3 (64%) and aqueous (22%) fractions of T. heudelotti and those of CHCl 3 (34%) and EtOAC (48%) of M. tomentosa gave the highest inhibition that was stronger than their corresponding methanol extracts. The corresponding EC 50 of the extracts on M. acuminata, T. heudelotti, E. senegalensis and M. tomentosa were 4.00, 6.50, 13.33, and 16.50 ig/ml using the TLC staining and 1,1-dipheyl-2-picry-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay. Therefore, leaf extracts of M. tomentosa and T. heudelotti, especially the latter, possess strong antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and should be further investigated. These activities justified the ethnomedical uses of these plants.

Metal(II) coordination compounds of glycine and phenylalanine were synthesized and characterized using infrared and electronic spectroscopic, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The complexes were tested for antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Candida albicans. The stoichiometric reaction between the metal (II) ions and ligands in molar ratio M:L (1:3) [where M = Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Cd; L= glycine; phenylalanine] resulted in the formation of five-coordinate square pyramidal dinuclear geometry for both copper complexes and six-coordinate octahedral geometry for the other complexes. The spectroscopic and magnetic moment data suggested that the ligands coordinated via both their amino and carboxylate ion moieties. The complexes demonstrated better activities against one or more of the tested microbes than acriflavine, the standard drug used.

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