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Global Research Journal of Microbiology Vol. 4(1) January 2014.
Available online http://www.globalresearchjournals.org/journal/grjm
Copyright ©2014 Global Research Journals
Full Length Research.
The effect of autoclaving and membrane filtration on the antimicrobial activities of Alchornea cordifolia leaf extract
Igbeneghu Oluwatoyin Abimbola*
Department of Pharmaceutics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
oaigbene@oauife.edu.ng; igbeneghuoluwatoyin@gmail.com, Tel: 08056307805
| Abstract |
Autoclaved and membrane filtered sets of the ethanolic leaf extract of Alchornea cordifolia (Schum and Thonn) Muell. Arg were screened against reference bacterial strains using the cup-in-plate agar diffusion and the agar dilution techniques. The zones of inhibition produced by the unsterilized extract and the autoclaved extract were not significantly different. The membrane filtered extract produced smaller zones of inhibition (14 – 16mm) of the bacteria than the unsterilized (14 – 22mm) and autoclaved extracts (12 – 22mm). The minimum inhibitory concentrations of the filtered extract against Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli was more than double those of the unsterilized and autoclaved extracts. The results suggest that autoclaving can be a useful method of sterilizing the ethanolic extract of Alchornea cordifolia leaves.
Keywords: Alchornea cordifolia; antimicrobial activity; sterilization; autoclaving; membrane filtration.