Efficacy of Moringa oleifera's Therapeutic Compounds and its Antimicrobial Activity

The present work was conducted to study the effective solvents for extracting therapeutic compounds from M. oleifera using GC-MS. In this process the M. oleifera leaf, pod and bark were collected, air dried and powdered and crude extracts were isolated using methanol, ethanol, acetone, petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and water. Phytochemical tests for alkaloids, saponins, protein, flavonoids, carbohydrates, tannins, terpenoids, phenols, glycosides and phytosteroids showed presence in all the components of leaf, pod and bark in one or the other tests. However, the extraction was better in petroleum ether, acetone, ethanol and methanol. The GC-MS analysis of the extracts like Methanol, Ethanol and Acetone showed six common compounds with antimicrobial activity. Antibiotic sensitivity of pathogenic microbes V. cholera, Salmonella sp., E. coli, Klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas sp. against Gentamycin, Streptomycin, Erythromycin, Tetracycline, Kanamycin, Nalidixic acid, Ciproflaxacin, Neomycin and Rifampicin was performed. V. cholera was resistant to Nalidixic acid, Salmonella sp. was not resistant to any of the antibiotics used, E. coli was resistant to Streptomycin, Kanamycin and Ciproflaxacin, Klebsiella was resistant to Nalidixic acid, Pseudomonas was resistant to streptomycin and Rifampicin. Leaf extract with methanol solvent showed highest antibacterial activity greater than the antibiotics used followed by ethanol extract however, acetone extract showed antibacterial activity only for Klebsiella sp. This shows that M. oleifera not only shows antimicrobial activity it also varies with the solvent.