STUDIES ON THE ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF CASTOR OIL SEED ON SOME SELECTED BACTERIA

ABSTRACT 

The castor plant is a robust perennial shrub of Euphorbiacaea family.  The seeds are documented to have an antibacterial profile against some bacterial organisms  such as  Escherichia  coli,  Staphylococcus  aureus,  Pseudomonas aeruginosa,    Klebsiella  pneumoniae,  Proteus  vulgaris,  and  Streptococcus pyogenes.  This  study  was  carried  out  to  ascertain  antimicrobial  properties inherent  in  the  extracts  (aqueous,  methanolic  and  n-hexane)  of  the  castor seed  against  some  test  organism  which  include:  Escherichia  Coli, Staphylococcus  aureus  and  Klebsiella  pneumoniae.  This  was  carried  out using the disk diffusion method to ascertain the antibacterial activity of the castor seed extract against these three organisms using Mueller-Hinton agar. All three extracts gave distinct zones of inhibition against these organisms, except  Staphylococcus  aureus  and  Klebsiella  pneumoniae  which  were resistant  at  50mg/ml  concentration  of  the  aqueous  extracts.  This  findings makes  this  seed  a  potential  chemotherapeutic  agent  useful  for  man  and animals