ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF PINEAPPLE LEAF EXTRACT ON SOME SELECTED BACTERIA OBTAINED FROM THE ORAL CAVITY OF STUDENTS ATTENDING A TERTIARY INSTITUTION

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) is valued for its sweet taste and ability to treat digestive issues and inflammation, due to bromelain, a protein-digesting enzyme found in it fruit and stem. However, little information is provided on it antibacterial activity on bacteria isolates associated with clinical specimen. Thus, this study was performed to examine the antibacterial activity of pineapple extract on some selected bacteria obtained from the oral cavity of tertiary institution students.Pineapple fruits were purchased from Otuoke market and immediately transported in sterilized polyethene bags to the laboratory where they were rinsed with distilled water. The oral cavity specimen gotten was prepared following microbiological standard and extraction of the pineapple leaves was aseptically carried out in the laboratoryat room temperature. Result of the total bacteria count show that the sample 1 has the highest bacteria count (3.4 x 102 CFU/mL) followed by sample 4 (3.1 x 102CFUmL) while sample 5 has the lowest value (1.2 x 102 CFU/mL). Bacteria isolated from the clinical samples were identified as Escherichia coli, Enterobactersp, Salmonella typhi, Proteus,and Pseudomonas spp. The results of the antibiotic susceptibility test done in the study show that all the bacteria strains were susceptible to piperacillin, azithromycin, and levofloxacin while they were all at intermediate level to ampicillin but enterobacter was resistance to Co-trimoxazole and Ceftriaxone.Proteus, Pseudomonas sp and Salmonella typhi were susceptible to ofloxacin and gentamicin while both E. coli and Enterobactersp were at intermediate level. Findings from the study show that many test organisms such as Enterobacter, E. coli, Pseudomonassp and Proteus sp, which were resistant to some of the conventional antibiotics were susceptible to the pineapple extract. This show that exploring natural products in the treatment of infections caused by bacteria strains can be a lasting means of resolving the issue caused by antimicrobial resistance.