ABSTRACT
The research aimed at
carrying out a comparative study on the effect of Massularia acuminata fractions against bacterial and fungi isolates from the oral cavity. The Antimicrobial assay was carried on the
following test organism; Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pnuemoniae,Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli and Enterobacter aerogenes. From antifungal result, it
was observed that the highest inhibition was observed in the ethanolic extract
of Massularia acuminata on Rhyzopus stolonifer, Candida albican and Fusarium solani. The ethanolic and methanolic extracts were also observed
from the results to have an intermediate
sensitivity to Aspergillus favus, Candida tropicalis, Candida albican, Rhyzopus stolonifer, Fusarium solani, while it was observed to be
resistant to Fusarium solani, Rhyzopus stolonifer, Candida tropicalis, Aspergillus favus for all the partitions of the extracts.
From the antifungal effect of the M. acuminata fractions, it could be
inferred that the ethanolic and methanolic extracts were quite effective in the
inhibition of the fungi infections and the methanolic extract proved very
infective on Candida albican, Rhyzopus stolonifer and Fusarium solani. From the result of the
antibacterial effect of M. acuminata fractions, the highest
inhibition was observed by the methanolic extract
of Massularia acuminata against all the Gram negative bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus. Also the aqueous extract also had a less sensitivity
against all the test microbes, as all proved resistant. It could be inferred
that the fractions of the extracts were unable to inhibit the growth of the strain
of gram positive bacteria and probably, the potency could be increased, if the
concentrations of the methanolic, ethanolic extracts of Massularia acuminata and
the standard drug, tetracycline are increased. Results obtained showed that ethanol was a better and more powerful
solvent than water. Whereas, the methanolic extract and the standard
drug were quite effective in the inhibition of some gram negative bacteria, Klebsiella pnuemoniae and Enterobacter aerogenes. From the results obtained, it can be deduced that the ethanolic and
methanolic extracts of Massularia acuminta possess antifungal and
antibacterial potentials, compared with the aqueous extract and its potency as
an inhibitor of bacterial and fungi organism found in the oral cavity.