Phytochemical investigation of stem bark of clausena anisata and evolution of its antimicrobial activity

Abstract

Clausena anisata is among the medicinal plant that has been commonly used by traditional people in some parts Africa and Ethiopia. Despite the wide usages of this plant in traditionally for the treatment of various ailments, the phytochemical investigation of the stem bark of this plant and its antimicrobial activity has not been addressed. Isolation of chemical constituents, evaluation of the antibacterial and antifungal activities are the main purpose of this research project. The air dried stem bark of C. anisata was sequentially extracted by petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone and methanol. The column chromatographic separation of the chloroform fraction was led to the isolation of mixture of carbazole alkaloids compound 1 and compound 2.The structures of the compounds were characterized based on data from 1 H-NMR, 13 C-NMR, DEPT-135 and related literature reports. Each crude extracts were evaluated on four bacteria strains Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Bacillus subtilis (ATCC6633) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and two fungal strain Fusariam spp and Candida albicums on disc diffusion method. Chloroform crude extracts demonstrated significant growth inhibition comparing with standard Chloramphenicol with growth inhibition of 15 mm was observed in B. subtilis bacteria and more zone of inhibition was observed for Fusarium spp fungi 13 mm comparing to the standard Ketoconazole. In both bacteria and fungi cases chloroform extract exhibited more potency.