Phytochemical Investigation and Antimicrobial Activity of Six Plants Used in Children’s Ailments Treatment in Niger

Abstract

Resistance phenomena of infectious agents to synthesis drugs and the high cost of these drugs led to medicinal plants as an alternative against infectious disease. The objective of this study is to characterize different classes of secondary metabolites and to test the antibacterial activity of six plants: Bauhinia rufescens Lam, Blepharis linariifolia PERS, Chrozophora brocchiana Vis, Gardenia ternifolia Schum and Thonn, Indigofera astragalina DC, Phyllanthus pentandrus Schumach &Thonn, used in traditional medicine for children treatment. The extracts are obtained by aqueous decoction with the 1/10 model (50 g of each sample in 500 ml of solvent). Phytochemical screening of these six plants was carried out by standards tests, which are reactions of colorations, precipitation and complexation. The agr medium diffusion was used for the sensitivity test of the aqueous extracts of these plants against two strains of bacteria (two isolates of Salmonella typhimurium lettuce and clinical). Phytochemical screening showed the presence of polyphenols, tannins, flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids, sterols/triterpenes in all tested extracts. All extracts contain saponins except Phyllanthus pentandrus. For free quinones, only Phyllanthus pentandrus and Indigofera astragalina showed a negative test. Among these six plants, five (5) showed an activity on Salmonella typhimurium at 200 mg/mL. C. brocchiana and P. pentandrus showed the best activity on S. typhimurium (lettuce) with 19.5±0.70 mm and 17.5±0.70 mm, respectively. At the concentration of 50 mg/mL, only these two plants are also showed antibacterial activity on S. typhimurium (lettuce). The results obtained indicate that these plants contain some secondary metabolites, some have antimiocrobial activity and constitute a scientific database for the research in the field of phytomedicines. These results will justify the use of these plants in the treatment of some infections.

Ethno Botanical, Pharmacology and Phytochemistry of widely used medicinal plants in Niger: A Review

“…The aqueous extract was tested on S. typhimirium of the isolated strains (Mahamane et al, 2020) [13] . Nasereldeen et al, in 2018 [14] showed the hepatoprotective properties of the hydroethanolic extract obtained from the whole plant.…”

“…The hexane extract of the plant seeds did not show activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus niger (Osama et al, 2017) [18] . [18] (Mahamane et al, 2020) [13] Hydroethanolic [5] . It is used in the composition of several recipes used in the treatment of infectious diseases.…”

“…Phytochemical studies carried out on P. pentandrus reveal the presence of alkaloids, saponosides and quinones only in the seeds, flavonoids are present only in the leaves and tannins are present in all organs; the absence of cyanogenic glycosides is also noted (Baoua et al, 1974;Alio et al, 2020; Mahamane et al, 2020) [2,19,13] . However, little work has been done on the biological activities of this plant, methanolic extracts have been tested on E. coli, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa (Kwaji et al, 2015) [20] , aqueous, dichloromethane and ethanolic extracts have been tested on S. typhimirium of the isolated strains (Alio et al, 2020; Mahamane et al, 2020) [19,13] . Chika and Bello in 2019 [21] showed the hepatoprotective properties of aqueous extracts obtained from the leaves.…”

“…The antioxidant activity by FRAP method was demonstrated by (Mahamane et al, 2020) [15] . (Mahamane et al, 2020) [13] (Alio et al, 2020) [19] (Kwaji et al, 2015) [20] Aqueous extract Antioxydant FRAP 2,21±0,02 mmol EAA/g (Mahamane et al, 2020) [15] Boscia senegalensis (Pers) Lam. Ex Poir (Capparidaceae) Khalid et al, in 1992 [12] reported that B. senegalensis is one of the plants with aphrodisiac use, plants treating oedema and rheumatism.…”

“…Treatment of diarrhoeal diseases, Intestinal parasitosis, Treatment of stomach ache and leprosy Oral decoction or maceration (Khalid et al, 1984) [2] (Jazy et al, 2017) [5] (Manzo et al, 2017) [4] S. Innocua Barks and/or leaves Typhoid fever and jaundice Oral decoction or maceration (Jazy et al, 2017) [5] I. Asarifolia Leaves, stem, whole plant Typhoid fever, diarrhoea and fungal infections Sickle cell disease, rheumatism, joint pain, skin allergy, hair loss, hemorrhoids and bacterial infections Oral decoction, infusion or maceration and enema (Jazy et al, 2017) [5] X. Americana [4] (Khalid et al, 1984) [2] (Jazy et al, 2017) [5] 1-p -hydroxy benzoyl-3-palmitoyl glycerol (10), 6 -p -hydroxy ben-zoyl daucosterol ( 11), scutellarein-6-methyl ether (12), quercetin (13), rutin (…”