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Background: Ficus species are used in African traditional medicine in the treatment of a wide variety of ailments and diseases such as convulsive disorder, wound healing, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, diabetes, diarrhoeal infections, dysentery, malaria and HIV. The aim of this study was to isolate the phytochemical constituents in the plant and test them for their antibacterial activity. Materials and methods: The fruits, leaves and stem bark were extracted with organic solvents and the compounds in the extracts separated and purified by column chromatography before being identified by NMR spectroscopy and by comparison of the NMR data against values reported in the literature. The antibacterial activity of the pure compounds and extracts were tested using the disk diffusion method. Results: Three triterpenes and three flavonoids: lupeol acetate (1); cycloart-23-ene-3,25-diol (2); β-sitosterol (3); 5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavan-3-ol (4); epicatechin (5); and isovitexin (6) were isolated in this study. Antimicrobial activity was observed at 8 mg mL -1 for Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 with four of the six isolated compounds, with no activity being observed at 1 -4 mg mL -1 against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, E. coli ATCC 35218 and S. aureus ATCC 43300. Epicatechin (5) was found to decrease adhesion of E. coli ATCC 25922 and S. aureus ATCC 29213. Decreased adhesion of S. aureus ATCC 29213 was also observed with 5,7,4'-trihydroxyflavan-3-ol (4) and isovitexin (6). Conclusions:The results of this study provide baseline information on F. sansibarica's potential validity in the treatment of infections associated with Gram-positive microorganisms.

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Abstract:The proximate, amino acid and fatty acid compositions of the fillet and oil of two commonly consumed fresh water fishes -Clarias gariepinus (Catfish) and Oreochromis niloticus (Tilapia) -were evaluated in this study. The samples were separately boiled, roasted (over hot charcoal) and fried using different types of oils (palm oil, groundnut oil, soybean oil and refined palm oil) and the effect of the processing methods on the nutritional composition was determined. The moisture content ranged from 76.27% for catfish to 79.97% for tilapia while the oil content ranged from 7.80% for tilapia and 11.00% for catfish. Ash content was in the range 8.03 -9.16% and the protein content was 15.83 -18.48%. The cooking methods resulted in a variation in the nutrient composition but no significant variation was observed in the amino acid composition except for the samples fried with palm oil which recorded significantly reduced essential amino acid contents. All the fish samples -both fresh and processed -have amino acid scores less than 100, with lysine, threonine and the sulfurcontaining amino acids being among the limiting amino acids. Both fish samples contain more unsaturated than saturated fatty acids.Keywords: Fish; proximate composition; fatty acid; amino acid.

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