Exploring the Phytochemical Properties of Prosopis africana Plants and Assessing their Antimicrobial Potential Against Selected Clinical Strains

Natural products continue to play a significant role in drug discovery and development, and plants are recognised as a reservoir of myriads of active antimicrobial natural products. Prosopis africana plants obtained from Bauchi were explored in the research to ascertain the bioactive components present in the plant parts. About one hundred (100 g) grams of ground samples of the root, stem bark, and leaves of the plant were extracted (maceration method) using n-hexane, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate, acetone, and methanol sequentially in order of increasing polarity. The percentage yields for the crude extracts of the root, stembark, and leaves were 7.0, 6.0, and 4.0%, respectively, while those of acetone, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, and hexane also showed significant variations. The presence of alkaloid, tannin, flavonoid, saponin, terpene, cardiac glycoside, starch, resin, phlobatannin, and phenol in the phytochemical test is an indicator of the great attributes of the plant's parts on microorganisms. This was further confirmed on strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albican using agar healthy diffusion techniques. The antimicrobial results show a higher zone of inhibition at concentrations of 400 mg/ml compared to 200 mg/ml, 100 mg/mL, and 50 mg/ml of the extract concentration. It is therefore concluded that with the global quest to search for new antibacterial active components that arose as a result of multiple drug resistances, the plant parts (root, stembark, and leaves) of Prosopis africana can provide an alternative source of such bioactive compounds, thereby mitigating the increase in drug resistance among species of bacteria

Application of ethanol extracts of Tapinanthus dodoneifolius to inhibit annealed carbon corrosion in 2 M HCl and 3.5% NaCl solutions

Protection effect of ethanol extracts of Tapinanthus dodoneifolius leaf (TD extracts) on corrosion of annealed carbon (FE164531) in 2 M HCl and 3.5% NaCl solution has been investigated by weight loss and electrochemical techniques. Surface morphology and elemental analysis was carried out on the corroded specimens using Scanning Electron Microscope/ Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) to augment results obtained. The data obtained from weight loss revealed that the corrosion protection potentials of TD extract is temperature-concentration dependent. The effectiveness of protection against the corrosive environment increased with increasing extracts concentration but decreased with increased temperature. Electrochemical polarization data showed TD extracts suppressed both the cathodic and anodic processes on FE164531 specimen surface. Calculated thermodynamic parameters showed that TD extracts adsorption process was spontaneous with likely electrostatic interactions which propose physical adsorption, a phenomenon consistent with unfavorable adsorption with increasing experimental temperature. The elemental analysis data show the presence of TD extracts species on FE164531 surface supporting strong adsorption of the extracts on the metal surface while SEM showed lesser corroded surface in the presence of TD extracts