Abstract
Phytochemicals that are naturally occurring in plants are known to be potentially bioactive, having anti-oxidative, antimicrobial and enzyme inhibiting potentials. This study investigated the antimicrobial, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities of the methanol and dichloromethane extracts of the leaf and stem Sorindeia warneckei. The plant extract showed the presence of saponins, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, glycosides, coumarins, steroids, alkaloids, anthraquinones and reducing sugars. The antioxidant potential was evaluated using DPPH radical scavenging assay while the antidiabetic activity was evaluated using an in-vitro α-amylase inhibitory assay. The DPPH free radical scavenging activity was expressed in % inhibition with L Ascorbic acid as standard showing IC50 0.69μg/ml with methanol extract while dichloromethane leaf extract having the highest activity at 0.45μg/ml. The α-amylase assay showed that the extracts exhibited potent alpha amylase inhibitory activity in a dose dependent manner with the leaf methanol extract having an IC50 of 2.33µg/L. The antimicrobial screening using the agar diffusion and agar dilution methods against the bacteria isolates Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhirimurium, Escherichia coli and Streptococcus mutans and the fungal isolates Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Rhizopus oligosporus showed a good positive result. Preliminary investigation reveals that Sorindeia warneckei, contain bioactive compounds that possess promising pharmaceutical potentials that could be exploited.