Comparative Studies on the Amount of Protein, Sodium and Potassium Ions Released by Methanolic Extracts from Six Cassia Species

摘要

The amount of protein, sodium and potassium ions released by some pathogenic bacteria in broth cultures containing m ethanolic extract s from leaves of six Cassia species was investigated using absorption spectrophotometer. The amount of protein leaked ranged between 4-60 mg mL^-1. Generally, the amount of protein released into the growth medium was found to vary between the different bacteria species and also differs among the various cassis species used. The quantity was higher among the gram positive organisms like Bacillus , subtilis , Staphylococcus and Clostridium species than the gram negative ones like Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Salmonella and Shigella . A similar trend was observed for the sodium and potassium ions.The amount that was released was between 1.0-74 for sodium and 1.00-65 for potassium. However, the amount of potassium ion released was lower than that of the sodium ions for a particular organism with a given plant specie. Also, Cassia auriculata demonstrated the greatest potential to cause the leakages of these intracellular materials followed by C. alata ; whereas C. mimosoides was the least. The mechanism of antimicrobial activity of extracts from these plants is due to leakages of these cellular constituents and thus justifies their use in ethnomedicine.