SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

BSc. BIOTECHNOLOGY & LABORATORY SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY, PHARMACOLOGY

AND TOXICOLOGY

SPECIAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

TITLE: ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF Commiphora swynnertonii

NAME OF STUDENT: THOMAS, JACKSON

REGISTRATION NUMBER: BLS / D / 07 / T.9221

SUPERVISORS: Dr. R.A. Max

 Dr. GAYMARY, BAKARI

November 2009 - February 2010

CHAPTER ONE

TITLE: ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF Commiohora swynnertonii

1:0 INTRODUCTION

1:1 BACKGROUND

Commiphora is a small to medium-sized. Bark grey to brown, smooth or

flaking in rather thick discs; watery to milky sap present; older trees often
fluted. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate with 2-6 pairs leaflets and a terminal
leaflet; leaflets elliptic, up to 6 × 3 cm, lower pairs often smaller, grayish-
green, shortly hairy, paler and more densely hairy below; margin entire.
Flowers in small axillaries clusters, yellowish to pinkish, appearing before or
with the new leaves. Fruit almost round, 1 cm in diameter, red when ripe,
densely hairy, splitting to reveal a black seed with a 4-lobed bright red
pseudo-aril. ( Hyde, M.A. & Wursten, B. (2009).

1:2 DISTRIBUTION

Occur in hot, dry woodland and thickets, often on rocky hillsides, Altitude
range Below 1000 m (Hyde, M.A 2009)

Worldwide distributed, in Africa mostly found in Angola, Botswana, DRC,

Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe Botswana,
Malawi, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, S. and northern South Africa. Hyde, M.A.
(Hyde, M.A. 2009)

COMMIPHORA EMINII: Beautiful blue peeling bark . Now becoming rare in habitat
From Tanzania, it is found from the Coast hill forests, the Pugu Hills Forest Reserve
and Tanga, to Morogoro and Dodoma. It grows in lowland evergreen rainforests and
woodlands where the terrain is rocky. This species has a less extensive root system
than most others (Welham, Marina )

1.2 PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION

Antibiotic resistance developed with the use of many antibiotics also toxicity to both human
animals and allergic reactions create a need to explore active principles from commiphora
swynnertonii against bacteria and fungi with no or minimum toxicity and allergic response.
The following table reveals resistance of bacteria to many antibiotics.

Table 1. The highest resistance and sensitivity for some bacteria against antibiotics (Sobhani.A
et al)

Bacteria Highest resistance (%) Highest sensitivity (%)

Salmonella typhinurium Amoxicillin (88.4) Chloramphenicol (97.2)

Staphylococcus Aureus Amoxicillin (1000 Chloramphenicol (90.60)

E.Coli Amoxicillin (91.8) Cephtizoxim (83.7)

Pseudomonas Aeroginosa Amoxicillin (95), Cephalotin Ciprofloxacin (90)

(95)
Entrobacteria Ampicillin (82.3) Ciprofloxacin (88.2)

Klebsiella Ampicillin, Amoxicillin (100) Cephtizoxim (93.3)

Streptococcus Amoxicillin (85.7) Doxycyclin (78.6)

Ascintobacter Ampicillin (100) Amikacin, Ciprofloxacin

(87.5)

Amoxicillin (92) Ciprofloxacin (80)

Citrobacteria
All bacteria Amoxicillin (92 Ciprofloxacin (80.7

1.3 Hypothesis
Natural products of Commiphora swznnertonii i.e. roots bark, bark & leaves
have Anti microbial activity.

1.4 STUDY OBJECTIVES

General objective

To determine the effect Commiphora swynnertonii as antibacterial agent

against Staphylococcus Aureus, Pseudomonas Aeroginosa, Salmonella typhi, E.Coli,and
bacillus subtilis. As antifungi against Candida albicans, Aspergilus species.

Specific objective

To asses antibacterial and antifungal a activity of Commiphora swynnertonii

in vitro

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Commiphoras are summer growers, and need a lot of heat and bright light
and can keep their leaves for most of the year if kept warm. If not kept warm
year round growth rate will be slowed down considerably. These plants are
very sensitive to frost .( Welham, Marina)

The leaves are generally compound (divided into several units) ranging in
size from an inch to 10 inches or more. Flowers are very small and usually
yellow or white.
The fruits contain a single seed (two in a few species) that varies in size from
a few mm to an inch or so.

Most commiphoras grow in a sandy, clay type of soil. They tend to be

vigorous growers which need a good size pot to allow roots freedom to grow
which in turn encourages growth of the plant itself.( Welham, Marina)

The Afrikaans common name "kanniedood" (literally "cannot die") and

oltemwai (maasai name)

OTHER SPECIES OF COMMIPHORA

Commiphora cervifolia
C. dulcis - Sugar Candy Tree
C. gracilifrondosa
C. madagascariensis
C. saxicola
C. virgata
 Many others of the 200 or more species of Commiphora which are not
considered succulent are nevertheless of interest to collectors because of
their attractive peeling bark which often exposes bluish or greenish bark
beneath. Some have red or orange color bark. ( Welham, Marina)

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF COMMIPHPORA SPECIES

Natural products of other species of commiphora have show antimicrobial

activities for example.
Commiphora quadricincta has a resin-gum that is widely used as a folk
medicine in Saudi Arabia. Extracts of the resin-gum, leaves and roots have
been studied for their antibacterial activity. The results clearly show that the
toluene-methanol extract of the leaves and roots has antibacterial activity
against Yersinia enterocolitica and Staphylococcus epidermidis, whereas the
toluene-methanol extract of the resin gum has activity against Escherichia
coli. The antibacterial activity of the resin gum is dependent upon the
solvent used. Petroleum ether is the best solvent followed by alcohols
(ethanol and methanol, respectively). The petroleum ether extract of the
resin-gum has activity against three out of four of the species studied
namely, Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis and E. coli. The ethanol
extract has antibacterial activity against Y. enterocolitica and S. epidermidis
and the methanol extract has activity against E. coli and S. epidermidis.
Diethyl ether has an activity pattern similar to ethanol, but it was less
potent. Benzene and chloroform extracts have similar activity against E. coli
only. The water extract of resin-gum had an inhibitory influence both in vitro
and in vivo against bacterial viability. ( Salamah A. all and Zaid M.A AIi
2007)

The crude ethanolic extract of Commiphora africana root was partitioned

with n-hexane, chloroform; water and 10% aqueous methanol and screened
for chemical constituents and antimicrobial activity. The n-hexane fraction,
which was the most bio-active was chromatographed on a column silica gel
to give a number of purified components. The components from the n-
hexane were found to be active against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia
coli and Candida albicans. S. aureus (ATCC 13709) was susceptible to
fractions C1 - 11 giving zonal inhibition of between 1 - 3 mm. Standard
antibiotics - amoxillin, chloramphenicol and tetracycline were compared with
the extracts in antimicrobial activity.( Akor, J. S. and Anjorin, T. S 2009.)

OTHER USES OF COMMIPHORA SPECIES

Fruits are used for the treatment of typhoid fever, remedy for stomach
problems, constipation, fever, snakebites and toothaches. The powdered
bark is mixed with porridge to cure malaria. The resin also has medicinal
uses including sealing and disinfecting wounds. It is applied as a plaster and
used for spasms. It is even used in embalming. The fumes of burnt resin are
used as an insecticide and an aphrodisiac.

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Microbiological materials and instruments

Nutrient agar
Blood agar
McConkey agar
Incubator
Wire loop
Bunsen burner
Petri dishes (150x20mm,for media pouring)
Weighing balance machine
Universal bottle (silica gel screw capped vials)
Autoclave machines (for sterilization of media, discs and utensils i.e.
glassware)
Distilled water
Forceps
Desiccators
Micropipette and Measuring Cylinder

Active principles of commiphora swymmertonii are obtained from leaves

barks of roots and stem, they will allowed drying by sun heat,
grinded\minced to obtain a powder like. Soaked into a liter of 99% ethanol
for three days. Allow to sediment and supernant obtained and filtered
through whatman filters no…. Separated by fractional distillation, distillates
placed in a desiccator containing silica gel

The agar diffusion test, or the Kirby-Bauer disk-diffusion method, is will

used to measure the effect of activity against bacteria grown in a culture.
The standard strains of bacteria from the laboratory will swabbed uniformly
across a culture plate. A filter-paper disk, impregnated with the collected
distillates, is then placed on the surface of the agar. The compound diffuses
from the filter paper into the agar. The concentration of the compound will
be highest next to the disk, and will decrease as distance from the disk
increases. If the compound is effective against bacteria at a certain
concentration, no colonies will grow where the concentration in the agar is
greater than or equal to the effective concentration. This is the zone of
inhibition. Thus, the size of the zone of inhibition is a measure of the
compound's effectiveness: the larger the clear area around the filter disk,
the more effective the compound. (Wikipedia)

CHAPTER FOUR

Table 2: Activity

2008 2009

OCT- FEB-MAY
Months / activities Dec JANUARY JUNE

Special project proposal preparation

and writing

Special project proposal

presentation
and submission

Laboratory work
Writing, presentation and
submission
Table 3: BUDGETARY REQUIREMENT

REQUIREMENTS COSTS

Bacterial media

Laboratory Apparatus i.e. Petri

dishes, etc

Stationeries for report writing

Plant sample collection

Laboratory use
Total

REFERENCES:

Hyde, M.A. & Wursten, B. (2009). Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information:

Commiphora mollis.
http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?
species_id=133340, retrieved 18 November 2009

Hyde, M.A. & Wursten, B. (2009). Flora of Mozambique: Species

information: Commiphora edulis subsp. edulis.
http://www.mozambiqueflora.com/speciesdata/species.php?
species_id=133300, retrieved 18 November 2009

Akor, J. S. and Anjorin, T. S Phytochemical and antimicrobial studies of

Commiphora africana (A. Rich) Engl. root extracts, Journal of Medicinal Plants
Research Vol. 3 (5), pp. 334–337, May 2009

Sobhani, A, Shodjai, H and Javanbakht, S, Drug resistance pattern in isolated

bacteria from
blood cultures, http://www.sid.ir/En/VEWSSID/J_pdf/86520040108.pdf

Marina Welham, the amateurs' digest commiphora humbertii

http://www.theamateursdigest.com/commipho.htm

All A. Salamah and AIi M.A. Zaid (2007). Antibacterial Activity of

Commiphora quadricincta from Saudi Arabia. Journal of King Saud University.
Science1. Volume 12:1420-2000)