PHYTOCHEMICAL AND ANTIMICROBIAL STUDIES OF SPERMACOCE VERTICILLATA (RUBIACEAE) G.F.W. MEYER, A RESEARCH PROJECT TOPIC ON BIOCHEMISTRY
ABSTRACT
The plant Spermacoce verticillata is used in ethnomedicine for the treatment of itches, diarrhoea, sores and other ailments. The hexane soluble fraction of acetone extract of the whole plant Spermacoce verticillata was subjected to phytochemical and antimicrobial screening. The phytochemical techniques employed were dry column vacuum chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatography. The antimicrobial activity was studied using agar diffusion, and broth dilution methods. The result of preliminary phytochemical screening carried out on the crude acetone extract revealed the presence of carbohydrates, Flavonoids, Anthraquinones, terpernoids, Tannis and Steroids; Tannins flavonoids, and Steroids/terpenes were also found to be present in the hexane fraction. Extensive chromatographic separation of the hexane soluble fraction using silica gel, dry column chromatography, followed by preparative thin layer chromatography led to the isolation of stigmasterol. The structure of this compound was established by spectral analysis including 1D and 2D NMR. The result suggest that the hexane fraction of Spermacoce verticillata plant possess phytochemical constituents that may be useful in the management ofmicrobial diseases.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 General Introduction
The use of plants and their preparations to treat infectious diseases is an age‐old practice and in the past possibly the only method available (Peach, 1995). However, the systemic study of plants for detecting antimicrobial activity is of comparatively recent origin. These investigations have been triggered by the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant microorganisms causing the effective life‐span of existing antibiotics limited. Hence the plant kingdom is being screened for newer and effective chemotherapeutic agents. Higher plants can serve both as potential antimicrobial crude drugs as well as a source of new anti‐infective agents (Peach, 1995).
It is evident, that even though scientific advances have been made in our quest to understand the physiology of the body, biotechnology and the treatment of diseases, natural products remain a crucial, cheap and uncontroversial component of the comprehensive health care strategy for the future (Patwadhan, 2005). Natural products such as plant extracts, either as pure compounds or as standardized extracts, provide unlimited opportunities for new drugs discoveries because of the unmatched availability of chemical diversity (Cosa et al., 2006).
