ANTIFUNGAL EFFECTS OF TAPINANTHUS GLOBIFERUS GROWING ON VITEX DONIANA AGAINST SOME FUNGAL ISOLATES

H Abubakar; AM Musa; MI Abdullahi; AJ Yusuf

doi:10.22270/ujpr.v5i1.361

H Abubakar Department of Chemistry, Sokoto State University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
AM Musa Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria.
MI Abdullahi Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.
AJ Yusuf Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.

10.22270/ujpr.v5i1.361

Keywords:

Antifungal, Phytochemical screening, Tapinanthus globiferus

Abstract

Objective: Fungal infections are the major cause of many skin diseases, especially in developing countries. Natural products of medicinal value represent a potential source of chemotherapeutic agents. Tapinanthus globiferus has been used extensively in ethnomedicine for the treatment hypertension, ulcer, cancer, diabetes and fungal infections without a scientific basis. This work was aimed at screening the phytochemical constituents and evaluating the antifungal properties of methanol leaf extract its ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions of T. globiferus against some clinical fungal isolates including Candida albicans, Trychophyton mentagrophytes, Trychophyton rubrum and Aspergillus niger using agar well diffusion and broth micro-dilution techniques.

Methods: Preliminary screening of phytochemical constituents of extract and fractions of T. globiferus indicated the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids and triterpenes.

Results: The methanol extract and its fractions demonstrated significant (P<0.05) antifungal effect against all the test organisms with mean zone of inhibition ranging from 27.83±0.16 – 14.46±0.29mm which was higher compared to that of the standard drug, Fluconazole (26.1±0.44 –18.49±0.16 mm). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of the extract ranged between 6.25 – 25.0 mg/mL; ethyl acetate fraction had 3.13 – 25.0 mg/mL while n-butanol fraction had the least MIC ranging from 0.39-12.5 mg/mL against the test organisms.

Conclusion: Study concluded that T. globiferus have good antifungal activity validating the ethnomedicinal claim for the use of the plant in the treating fungal diseases.