ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECT OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF AZADIRACHTA INDICA (NEEM TREE) ROOTS AND LEAVES AGAINST ESCHERICHIA COLI AND STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS

Plants have many bio-active compounds which are potential medicinal agents. Herbal medicines are popular in developing countries. Bacteria resistance to antibiotics is a major problem for clinicians and therapeutic industry and great efforts are been made to screen wide varieties of medicinal plants from the traditional system of medicine with the hope of getting some newer, safer and more effective agents that can be used to fight infectious diseases. Different parts of the neem plant have medicinal properties. The Roots, leaves, bark, oil, flower, fruit and seed exhibit great properties which include antiallergic, antifungal, antibiotic, antidermatic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, insecticidal, larvacidal, antimalarial, anti-ulcer and other biological activities. This study examined the antibacterial activity of Ethanolic Extracts of Azadirachta indica (Neem tree) roots and leaves against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The tested organisms was obtained from Nagarta Medical Laboratory and. Roots and Leaves of the Neem tree was harvested in Federal Polytechnic Kaura Namoda garden and identified in microbiology Laboratory. The neem roots and leaves were extracted using solvent extraction method (ethanol) to extract the bioactive compound on both roots and leaves of the tree. The identified organisms were tested against roots and leaves extracts of the Neem tree saperately to identify the antibacterial activity of both roots and leaves of Neem tree. The anti-bacterial activity of the extracts was evaluated using dics diffusion method. Both Roots and Leaves of the tree were found to be very effective against the tested organisms in which the leaves of the tree showed higher activity against the tested bacteria with the highest zone of Inhibitions of 3.0cm and 2.2cm against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus respectively, than the roots of the tree with highest zone of Inhibitions of 2.1cm against both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This shows that roots and leaves of neem plant has anti-bacterial properties and can be used as effective antibacterial agent against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.