Proximate composition of Nahar (mesua ferrea) leaves and antibacterial assay of its extracts

Abstract

The essential oils and other plant extracts are promising natural antimicrobial agents with potential applications in the food or pharmaceutical industries for the control of pathogenic bacteria. The aims of this study were to determine the proximate composition of Nahar leaves (Mesua ferrea L.) and also to evaluate the antibacterial activity of its extracts obtained from different extraction methods. The extracts evaluated were cold water extract, hot water extract, cold solvent extract and hot solvent (soxhlet) extract using both ethanol and methanol, while the antibacterial activity was determined by disc diffusion assay. The proximate analysis of the leaves revealed that the leaves contained 41.53±0.01% moisture content, 5.92±0.01 % crude oil, 0.97±0.01% crude protein, 6.50±0.01% ash content and 45.08±0.01% carbohydrate. The antimicrobial assay of all the extracts showed a remarkable inhibition ranging from 10.0±0.5mm to 18.0±0.5mm for all the tested bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus).