Effect of Varying Drying Temperature on the Antibacterial Activity of Moringa oleifera Leaf (Lam)

Abstract

The use of herbal and medicinal plant for traditional therapeutic measure and health care services began since pre-historical time and currently exploited especially in modern medicine. This study investigated the effects of different drying temperature on the antibacterial activity of ethanolic extract of M. oleifera leaf. Fresh leaves of M. oleifera were dried separately at varying temperature by sun drying, oven drying and air drying methods, grinded into powdered form and extracted with ethanol. The ethanolic extracts were used for antibacterial susceptibility test using agar disc diffusion method. All the three clinical bacterial isolates such as E. coli, S. aureus and S. typhiwere susceptible to the ethanolic extract of M. oleifera leaf which signified its antibacterial potency. The air dried extract produced the highest zones of inhibition than the sun dried and oven dried ethanolic extract with 13 mm and 19 mm, 13 mm and 21 mm, 11 mm and 20 mm as the lowest and highest inhibition zones for E. coli, S. aureus and S. typhi respectively. This study inferred that drying temperature especially higher temperature has profound effects on the antibacterial activity of M. oleifera leaf as active component are depreciated