Sanseviera liberica
is used in Nigerian folk medicine for the treatment of asthma,
abdominal pain, diarrhea, wounds of the foot, gonorrhea, snake bites etc. Some of these diseases
are caused by pathogenic bacteria. To validate the trado-medical applications of
S. liberica, an
investigation of the phytochemical and antimicrobial properties of the methanol and n – hexane
extracts was conducted. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of tannins, flavonoids,
saponins, reducing sugars and carbohydrates in both extracts. Alkaloids were present only in the
methanol extract. Glycosides, terpenoids and steroids were absent in both extracts. The
proximate analysis of
S. liberica showed total ash value of 6.0 %, acid insoluble ash of 1.10 %,
alcohol extractive value of 6.80 %, water extractive value of 5.20 % and moisture content of
14.50 %.The broth microdilution technique was used to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of
both the methanol and n – hexane extracts of
S. liberica. Results showed that
Psuedomonas
aureginosa
,
Streptococci pyrognase
and
Staphylococcus aureus
were sensitive to the methanol
extract while
Candida albicans
,
Klebsiella pneumonia
,
Salmonella typhii
,
Baccilus subtilis
and
Escherischia coli
were not sensitive. All the eight microorganisms involved in the antimicrobial
assay were not sensitive to the n-hexane extract.