Antimicrobial Activity of Emilia pratermissa Leaf Extracts on Organisms Isolated from Patients with Otitis Media Attending Federal Medical Centre Owo and Ondo States Specialist Hospital Akure

The antimicrobial activity of methanol, hot water and cold water extracts of the leaf of Emilia pratermissawas evaluated against organisms isolated from patients with otitis media using agar well diffusion method. The isolated bacteria were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility testing using disc diffusion method. In addition, antifungal assay was conducted on the test fungi using agar well diffusion techniques. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined using the tube dilution technique. All the experiments were carried out in triplicates and data obtained from the study were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). From the results, highest inhibition of methanol extract was recorded against Staphylococcus aureus with a zone of inhibition value of 29.00 mm while the least zone of inhibition value of 17.33 mm was recorded on Streptococcus pyogenes. For hot water extracts, the highest inhibition was recorded on Streptococcus pneumoniae with 24.67 mm and least inhibition on Staphylococcus aureus with 16.67 mm. For cold water extracts, the highest zone of inhibition was recorded for Escherichia coli with zone of inhibition value of 27.00 mm and lowest on Proteus mirabilis with 17.33 mm. For antifungal activity, methanol extract recorded the highest inhibition value of 11.67 for Aspergillus niger while the least zone of inhibition value of 7.33 mm was recored for Candida albicans.The highest inhibition by cold water extract was recorded for Aspergillus flavus with a zone of inhibition value of 12.33 mm while the least zone of inhibition value of 5.33 mm was recorded for Candida albicans. For hot water extract, Aspergillus niger had the highest zone of inhibition with 12.67 mm and least for Candida albicans with 3.33 mm. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of extracts ranged from 3.125 mg/ml to 12.5 mg/ml for the test organisms. The antimicrobial activity of the three extracts inhibited the growth of the test organisms as much as that of the commercial antibiotics. Antimicrobial potential of Emilia pratermissa may be a source of new bioactive compounds for drug development, and also suggest that the plant could be promising in traditional phytomedicine for the treatment of otitis media infection.