Anti-bacterial activity of Moringa spp seed.extracts and their water flocculation ability

Abstract

Water-borne diseases are some of the main problems in developing countries; about 1.6 million people compelled to use contaminated water. In many communities in the Winam Division,water clarification/purification methods are often inappropriate because of high cost and low availability of chemical coagulants, thus they consume water contaminated with disease causing microorganisms leading to outbreak diseases like typhoid. Natural products from Moringa spp. have been used as primary coagulants for water treatment. Objectives of the research were to establish the anti-bacterial activity of M oleifera and M stenopetala and their water clarification ability. 1 kg powder of shade dried and milled seeds of the M oleifera and M stenopetala were serially soaked in 2 litres of n-hexane and 2 litres of methanol to extract the active components and placed in a shaker for 4 hrs. Samples of water collected were processed for water coagulation studies. The nhexane and methanol filtrates of M oleifera Lam and M stenopetala seed extracts were then concentrated in a round-bottomed flask using a rotary evaporator under low temperature to obtain the extracts. 340ml n-hexane extract, 126ml methanol extract of M oleifera and 226ml n-hexane extract, 67ml methanol extract of M stenopetala were obtained. The anti-bacterial activity of nhexane and methanol extracts of M oleifera and M stenopetala against Salmonella typha, Vibrio cholera and Escherichia coli and water clarification ability of their methanol extracts were then evaluated using randomized complete block design. The results were analyzed using Analysis of Variance. The results indicated that, n-hexane extract had a higher inhibition on Salmonella typhii than Vibrio cholera and Escherichia coli and M oleifera was better water clarifier than M stenopetala. Aluminium sulphate achieved lower turbidity than M oleifera and M stenopetala extracts. The results showed that M oleifera and M stenopetala had antibacterial and water clarification ability. The outputs from this research would generate baseline data prerequisite for the future development of water purification and clarification products.