Research Article Evaluation of Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties of

Copyright © 2015 David A. Akinpelu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Alchornea laxiflora leaf extract was tested against a range of microorganisms using standard microbiological methods for antimicrobial activities. The extract inhibited the growth of all the bacterial and 15 fungal isolates tested. The zones of inhibition exhibited against the test bacteria ranged between 12mm and 24mm and between 11mm and 24mm for the extract and the antibiotic streptomycin, respectively. The zones of inhibition observed against the fungal isolates by the extract ranged between 12mm and 23mm. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) exhibited by the extract against test bacteria ranged between 0.78mg/mL–25mg/mL and 1.56mg/mL–25mg/mL, respectively, while theMICs andminimum fungicidal concentrations (MFCs) values for the test fungi ranged between 8.75mg/mL–35.00mg/mL and 8.75mg/mL–35.00mg/L, respectively. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the extract revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, and reducing sugars as major phytoconstituents in the extract. A. laxiflora leaf extract is a poten