Albizia anthelmintica is a medicinal plant belonging to the Fabaceae family. It is widely used by smallholder farmers and pastoralists to treat internal parasites in their livestock. This study aimed to determine the antibacterial and antioxidant potential of A. anthelmintica on pathogenic veterinary isolates. 100% hexane (He100), 100% chloroform (Ch100), 100% ethanol (E100), and 70% ethanol (E70) extracts of the roots and barks of A. anthelmintica were tested against four bacterial strains (Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Proteus mirabilis). Thin layer chromatography- 2, 2-diphenyl-1- picryl hydrazyl (TLC-DPPH) assay was used to examine antioxidant potential of extracts. Antimicrobial activity was determined using the disc diffusion method and minimum inhibiting concentrations (MICs) values were determined using the micro-titre broth-dilution method. At a concentration of 500 µg/ml, E70 roots extract showed the highest % DPPH inhibition of 66.9%. Among the bark extracts, the highest free radical scavenging activity was observed in E70 extracts with 58.9% DPPH inhibition. Phytochemical analysis of the plant extracts revealed the presence of compounds which are known to exhibit medicinal properties such as tannins, terpenoids, quinones, saponins and fatty acids phenols. E100 bark extracts contained most of these compounds except flavonoids. Only alkaloids were not detected in any of the roots or bark extracts. Ch100 bark extracts showed the highest antimicrobial activity and all bacterial isolates were resistant to the E100 root extracts. Ch100 root extracts showed the lowest minimum inhibition concentration of 0.625 mg/ml against S. enterica serovar Typhimurium. Findings of this study show that some of the root and bark extracts of the A. anthelmintica plant have both antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. These findings can possibly be relevant in the development of novel medication against veterinary pathogens. Furthermore, this study will guide similar studies.
Key words: Antibacterial, antioxidant, Albizia anthelmintica, phytochemical, minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs).
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