Browsing by Author "Kyakulaga, Siragi"

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    TLC-bioautography guided identification and assessment of antibacterial compounds from plectranthus cyaneus.
    (Busitema University, 2026) Kyakulaga, Siragi
    The increasing resistance of many pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics has created urgent need to search for alternative antibacterial agents from natural sources. This study investigated the antibacterial active components of Plectranthus cyaneus leaves using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) Bio autography-guided identification Fresh leaves of Plectranthus cyaneus were collected from busitema university garden campus, allowed to dry under shade, powdered and extracted with ethanol, hexane and ethyl acetate using maceration extraction. The crude extracts were separated by TLC using hexane: ethyl acetate solvent system in a ratio of (7:3) respectively. The developed chromatograms were subjected direct TLC bioautography against Escherichia coli cultured on MacConkey agar and Staphylococcus aureus cultured on nutrient agar, followed by visualization using resazurin dye. The TLC analysis showed distinct phytochemical compounds with different Rf values ranging from 0.26 to 0.71 in ethyl acetate, from 0.21 to 0.50 in hexane, and from 0.19 to 0.69 in ethanol. Ethanol produced good separation chromatographic resolution, indicating improved separation of phytochemicals. After spraying with resazurin dye, colourless zones were observed against the pink background, indicating antibacterial activity. The inhibition zone detected suggest presence of multiple antibacterial components in the ethanol, hexane and ethyl acetate. The findings demonstrate that Plectranthus cyaneus contains active compounds with antibacterial activity and support its traditional medicinal use in the treatment of bacterial infections. The study later confirmed that TLC-bioautography is a rapid, simple and cost-effective method for identifying antibacterial compounds from medicinal plants prior to the advanced purification and characterization. GC-MS analysis of the bioactive fractions revealed the presence of different phytochemical constituents, including the alcohols, phenolic derivatives, long chain hydrocarbons, fatty acid methyl esters. The major compounds identified included Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester, methyl stearate, 6-octsdecanoic acid methyl ester, n-nonadecanol-1, and among these hexadecanoic acids methyl ester and methyl stearate were predominant constituents, showing that fatty acid derivatives have a significant proportion of the bioactive extract and contribute to the antibacterial activity observed during TLC bioautography.