Phytochemical Screening and Antifungi Activity of Senna Alata Leaves Extract against Some Selected Fungi Isolate

Abstract

Senna alata also known as candle stick or bush candle is a very important medicinal plant due to the fact that,every part of the plant especially the leaves are medicinal. In this research, crude extract was prepared from senna alata leaves using ethanol, The crude extract was analysed for its phytochemical contents. The antifungal activities of the ethanol extract of senna alata leaves were also investigated against four different species of fungi namelly: Aspergillus spp Rhizopus spp.peniciliumniger and Candida albican. The result of the phytochemical analysis showed that senna alata leaves contain Tannin,Saponin, The fungi species were also tested with ketoconazole tablet (200mg) a stanadard drug as a positive control Alkaloid, Flavonoid, Steroids, Terpenoid, Phenol, Phobatanin and Glycoside were present in the extract. The ethanolic crude extract of senna alata was found to inhibit the growth of the entire organism tested with a certain diameter that is proportional to the concentration of the crude extract. The experiment was repeated five times for each of the fungi and the mean with standard deviation was calculated using spss. The extract with the concentration of 25% have a growth inhibition diameter of 5.23±0.17mm when tested with aspergillus niger, 4.12±0.11mm with Rhizopus spp, 9.18±0.20mm with penicilium niger and 10.15±0.03mm with Candida albican. The extract with concentration of 50% shows growth inhibition diameter of 11.00±0.15mm when tested with Aspergillus niger, 10.22±0.25mm with Rhizopus spp,14.11±0.80mm with penicilium niger, and 14.21±0.23mm with Candida albican. Finally, the extract with the concentration of 100 % have a growth inhibition diameter of 20.30±0.10mm with Aspergillus spp,26.15±0.11mm with Rhizopus spp, 30.20±0.12mm with penicilium spp and 25.10±0.10mm with Candida albican. The results obtained from the various concentration of the crude extracts with the same concentration show no significant different(P<0.05) and are dose dependant. The fungi culture tested with a standard drug as positive control was found to be more effective. The result from both the antifungal property and the phytochemical screening revealed that the leaves of senna alata show some sign of antifungal activity