Evaluation of Antimicrobial Activity, Toxicity and Phytochemical Screening of Selected Medicinal Plants of Losho, Narok County, Kenya
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EVALUATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY, TOXICITY AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF SELECTED MEDICINAL PLANTS OF LOSHO, NAROK COUNTY, KENYA. By DUNCAN MUTISO CHALO B.SC. (BIOLOGY) UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI. I56/68748/2013 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN PLANT TAXONOMY AND ECONOMIC BOTANY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI. UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI 2015 DECLARATION This is my original work and has never been presented for a degree in any other university Duncan Mutiso Chalo School of Biological Sciences, College of Biological and Physical Sciences, University of Nairobi Signed: ______________________________ Date___________________________ This thesis has been submitted with our approval as university supervisors Dr. Catherine Lukhoba., B.Ed. (Science), MSc, PhD. School of Biological Sciences, College of Biological and Physical Sciences, University of Nairobi Signature: _____________________________ Date__________________________________ Prof. Dossaji Saifuddin F., BSc, MSc, PhD. School of Biological Sciences, College of Biological and Physical Sciences, University of Nairobi Signature: ___________________________ Date ____________________________________ Dr. Joseph Mwanzia Nguta., BVM, MSc, Ph.D. (UON). Department of Public Health, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, University of Nairobi Signature: ________________________________Date ________________________________ i DEDICATION I dedicate this project to the best dad in the world Patrick Chalo Mutiso, my late mum, my siblings Jaelyn, Richard, my sweetheart (Ngina), Okito, Tyso, Mbuvi, Damaris and my entire friends who kept me in their prayers for their invaluable support and motivation during this study. God bless you all. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I thank the Almighty God for giving me good health, endurance, strength and above all ability to undertake this study. My sincere appreciation goes to my supervisors. I am much grateful to my first supervisor Dr. Lukhoba for her constant critics and endless advice during this study. Many thanks also go to my second supervisor Prof Dossaji for his guidance, understanding, encouragements and being instrumental throughout this work especially in phytochemical analysis. My gratitude also goes to my third supervisor, Dr. Nguta for criticism and showing me the direction forward and invaluable assistance. I am thankful to technical staff, School of Biological Sciences (SBS), Mr. Mutiso for his help in voucher specimen identification, Trisa, Steve, Wachira and Magrate for their support and guidance in antimicrobial work. I also express special thanks to Judy Odhiambo for her „heart of gold‟ and technical support, not forgetting my fellow classmate Alfred Ojwang (Mwalimu) for his encouragement and advice. Sincere thanks to the herbalists of Losho Narok County who provided ethnobotanical information and help in collection of voucher specimens and plant materials. My special gratitude also goes to my Dad Patrick M. Chalo for his love, concern, profound financial support, advice and prayers. Rhoda Ngina for her deepest gratitude, endless support and encouragement throughout my study and her great encouragement that contributed enormously to my educational achievements to this level. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ............................................................................................................................. i DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ..................................................................... xii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE: ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background information ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem statement ................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Justification of study ............................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.4.1 Main Objective ............................................................................................................... 3 1.4.2. Specific objectives ......................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Hypothesis ............................................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................................................ 5 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Significance and prospects of herbal remedies/medicine ..................................................... 5 2.2 Microbial infections and health effects ................................................................................. 6 2.2.1. Pseudomonas aeruginosa .............................................................................................. 7 iv 2.2.2 Escherichia coli .............................................................................................................. 7 2.2.3 Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ................................................... 8 2.2.4 Bacillus cereus ................................................................................................................ 8 2.2.5 Candida albicans ............................................................................................................ 8 2.3 Significance of toxicity studies ............................................................................................. 9 2.4 Phytochemical screening. .................................................................................................... 10 2.5 Description, traditional use and chemical constituents of the four plant species. ............... 10 2.5.1 Schrebera alata (Hochst.) Welw. (Oleaceae) ............................................................... 10 2.5.2 Ormocarpum kirkii (Taub.) Engl. (Fabaceae, Papilionoideae) .................................... 12 2.5.3 Helichrysum forskahlii (J.F. Gmel.) Hilliard & B.L. Burttv (Asteraceae) ................... 13 2.5.4 Cussonia holstii Harms ex Engl (Araliaceae). ............................................................. 15 CHAPTER THREE ...................................................................................................................... 17 3.0: MATERIALS AND METHODS ....................................................................................... 17 3.1. Collection of plant materials .............................................................................................. 17 3.2. Preparation of crude extracts .............................................................................................. 18 3.2.1. Preparation of organic extracts. ................................................................................... 18 3.2.2 Preparation of aqueous extracts .................................................................................... 18 3.3 Media preparation ............................................................................................................... 18 3.3.1 Mueller Hinton Agar .................................................................................................... 18 3.3.2 Sabouraud Dextrose Agar ............................................................................................. 18 3.4 Source of microorganisms. .................................................................................................. 19 3.5. Sub culturing of test microorganisms................................................................................. 19 3.6. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing ................................................................................... 19 3.6.1 Agar well diffusion ....................................................................................................... 20 3.6.2 Disc diffusion ............................................................................................................... 20 3.7 Determination of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) ............................................ 20 v 3.8 Determination of acute toxicity of crude extracts ............................................................... 21 3.9 Qualitative phytochemical screening of crude extracts......................................................