Physicochemical and Antibacterial Evaluation of the methanol extract of Chrysobalanus icaco L. (Chrysobalanceae) Seed and Fractions

The use of plants as antimicrobial agents has gained popularity recently due to the need to explore safer alternative means of combating bacterial infections. The seeds of C. icaco were evaluated for its physicochemical, phytochemical and antimicrobial properties. The pulverized seed was extracted using cold maceration. Standard methods were used to evaluate the physicochemical properties of the powdered drug and phytochemical content of the crude extract of the seeds of C. icaco. The crude methanol extract was partitioned into dichloromethane and aqueous fractions. The antibacterial evaluation of the crude extract and fractions were done using agar well diffusion method. The phytochemicals present in the methanol crude were saponins, tannins, flavonoids, reducing sugars, alkaloids, steroid, terpenoids and cardiac glycosides. The moisture content value was 6.37 %. The antimicrobial result revealed that DCM fraction showed the highest zone of inhibition against S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, and E. coli at a concentration of 100 mg/mL, 200 mg/mL, 100 mg/mL, 25 mg/mL and 200 mg/mL respectively when compared to the crude seed extract and aqueous fraction. The MIC of crude extract was 50 mg/ml against each bacteria. The MIC of DCM fraction was between 100 mg/ml and 50 mg/ml against each bacteria. The MIC of aqueous fraction between 200 mg/ml and 50 mg/ml against each bacteria. This study therefore suggest that the crude extract and dichloromethane fraction of the seed of C. icaco possess antibacterial activities again selected isolates.