Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Study of Jatropha curcus Root

Abstract

This study investigated the use of Jatropha curcus as a medicinal plant used in treating many microbial infections. The lack of
scientific standardization as well as possible therapeutic alternatives against antibiotic resistant bacterial and fungal infections
indicates strong need for continuous effort to validate the use of plant material as alternative therapy regimens with similar or
higher antibiotic beneficial properties. The present study describes the phytochemical activities and antibiotic properties of
Jatropha curcus extracts against S. aureus, E. coli, Klebsiella, Shigella sp, Candida albicans, C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. tropicalis
and C. kfyer. The phytochemical analysis was carried out using hexane, ethyl acetate and methanolic extracts of root bark of the
plant using standard methods. The antibacterial potency was initially determined by agar well diffusion method for crude extracts
of Jatropha curcusfollowed by quantitative evaluation of antibacterial activity by Minimum inhibitory concentration and Minimum
bactericidal/fungicidal concentration. Phytochemical screening of all the extracts revealed the presence of alkaloid, flavonoids,
carbohydrate, triterpenes and tannins. Steroid was absent in hexane and ethyl acetate but present in methanol extract.
Anthraquinones was absent in all the extracts. Sensitivity test result showed that all the test isolates were sensitive to hexane, ethyl
acetate and methanolic extracts at 500mg/ml. Staphlococcus aureus, Shigella sp., Candida krusei were found to have Minimum
Inhibitory and Minimum Bactericidal/Minimum Fungicidal Concentrations of 31.25mg/ml and 62.5mg/ml respectively in all the
extracts. Thus this plant is a potential candidate for drug development for the treatment of diseases caused by these pathogens.