Alowo Florence2026-05-252026-05-252024Alowo, F. (2024). Phytochemical analysis of the aerial parts of Tephrosia elegans with antibacterial and antioxidant [Undergraduate, Research Report]. Busitema University.https://bdears.busitema.ac.ug/handle/123456789/3851There has been high prevalence of skin diseases worldwide. Some of these are caused by bacteria especially staphylococcus aureus. These pathogens have also led to production of reactive molecules from the metabolism of oxygen like superoxide and hydrogen peroxide that give rise to a variety of pathological conditions among which is inflammation There are several bacterial skin treatments that have been used towards this challenge but these bacteria especially S. aureus have become resistant to drugs for example penicillin, niacinamide and many others. Plants are valuable source of biologically active molecules The phytochemical screening of the aerial parts of T. elegans has shown presence of most of these phytochemical components especially tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, steroids and glycosides. The total quantification of the different components presents in T. elegans resulted into alkaloids with 118.9 mg/g, phenols with 48.69mg/g, flavonoids with 33.34mg/g and tannins with 2.63mg/g. The antioxidant study on the methanolic extract of T. elegans using DPPH test was also determined and it demonstrated an antioxidant scavenging percentage of 41.87%. In addition, the antibacterial activity was also investigated using the disc-diffusion method on Nutrient Agar. In the disc-diffusion assay, the solutions of the plant extract in methanol (80%) and DMSO were dipped on sterile filter paper discs of 6mm diameter. Then the filter paper discs were placed on agar plates uniformly inoculated with S. aureus at 37⸰C for 24 hours. A paper disc with DMSO was used as a negative control. The diameter of the clear zone surrounding the disc was used to measure the antibacterial activity of the plant extract. After 24 hours, there was no inhibition of the bacterial by the plant extract in all the plates hence T. elegans does not inhibit S. aureus.en-USThesis