Phytochemical and Antimicrobial Activities of the Leaf Oil Extract of Mentha Spicata and its Efficacy in Repelling Mosquito
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CODEN
Abstract
Description
Synthetic drugs and repellents have been discovered to have adverse toxicity effects apart from the fact that they are
no longer efficient due to adaptation of microbes and mosquitoes to them. This study is based on using the extract
from local leaves (Mentha spicata plant) as treatment for microbial diseases as well as mosquito repellent. Extract
of leaf were studied and screened for the presence of phytochemicals (secondary metabolites) and antimicrobial
properties against some fungi and bacteria viz., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus Subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus,
Aspergillus niger, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The result of the phytochemical screening
revealed that the leave extract contained tannin, steroids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenols and cardiac glycosides
while anthraquinones and saponins were not determined. From the microbial analysis the zone of inhibitions
indicated that the extract of Mentha spicata plant had strong activity against bacteria and fungi used in this
analysis. Mentha spicata oil extract with the highest concentration when introduced into the produced cream had
the highest repellency time lasting up to four [4] hours. The chemical constituents of the leaf oil extract were
analyzed using Gas chromatography- mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and the major chemical constituent identified
was carvone.
Keywords
QD Chemistry, QR Microbiology, QR355 Virology