STUDIES ON ANTIHAEMORRHAGIC AND ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF BULB JUICE, ETHANOL AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF ALLIUM SATIVUM LINN. (LILLIACEAE) AGAINST MENINGEAL BACTERIA

STUDIES ON ANTIHAEMORRHAGIC AND ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF BULB JUICE, ETHANOL AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF ALLIUM SATIVUM LINN. (LILLIACEAE) AGAINST MENINGEAL BACTERIA

Abstract:

Bacterial meningitis (BM) is a devastating air-borne infectious disease of humans that causes cellular hemorrhagic sepsis, metabolic, neurologic and endocrine disorders and constitutes a serious threat to public health. Where malnutrition is linked to BM, it is a great economic and societal burden accompanied with high morbidity and mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria. A. sativum, a medicinal food herb found in Northern Nigeria, has been used in folklore to treat infectious diseases locally including haemorrhagic sepsis and malnutrition. In the present investigation, the antihaemorrhagic and in vitro antibacterial activities of the juice (JEAS), ethanolic (EEAS) and aqueous (AEAS) bulb extracts of A. sativum were evaluated against bacterial meningitis pathogens. The methods employed in this study were validation of phytochemical screening which was done according to standard methods, determination of nutritional composition was carried out using analytical automated instruments (Atomic Absorption Spectrometers), investigation of antihemorrhagic activity was done using mean blood clotting time of wistar rats, and evaluation of in vitro antibacterial activities of the extracts against clinical isolates using agar-well diffusion and broth dilution methods. The clinical isolates of meningitis pathogens, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitides, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Escherichia coli were obtained from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Shika-Zaria. The phytochemical screening of A. sativum extracts (JEAS, EEAS and AEAS) revealed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, cardiac glycosides, fats & oils, flavonoids, saponins and steroidal terpenoids. The results obtained as nutritional profiles from analytical automated machines analysis showed that A. sativum contained all classes of food nutrients such as carbohydrate, protein, fat and oils, dietary fibres, an. vitamins together with zeolite herbominerals (nanopharmacologic effects). The mean blood clotting time of the three extracts on afflicted fresh wounds on rat were also determined. JEAS and EEAS extracts were potent in both antihemorrhagic (0.94 ± 0.01 minutes), (0.99±0.04) and antibacterial activities while and AEAS (1.20±0.04) showed low activity, inhibiting the clinical bacterial isolates Neisseria meningitides, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Escherichia coli with diameter of zone of inhibition ranging from 15-36 mm at concentrations of 10, 15, 20 and 25 mg/ml. It produced significant (p<0.05) antibacterial activity while EEAS and AEAS showed low activities, except Klebsiella pneumoniae which was resistant to the three extracts concentrations used. The extracts inhibited the growth of the bacterial isolates in a concentration dependent manner with MICs ranging between 0.04-1.56 mg/ml while MBCs was 0.10-2.50 mg/ml respectively. The findings from this study could be of interest and suggest the need for further investigations with a view to use the plant in novel drug development for BM therapy. The antihemorrhagic and antibacterial activities of the three extracts were statistically significant (p < 0.05). JEAS also exhibited shorter clotting time (Waller Duncan Test, SAS). The outcome of this study could therefore justify the ethnomedical and folkloric usage of A. sativum to treat bacterial meningitis locally.

STUDIES ON ANTIHAEMORRHAGIC AND ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF BULB JUICE, ETHANOL AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF ALLIUM SATIVUM LINN. (LILLIACEAE) AGAINST MENINGEAL BACTERIA