CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
African flora in general has an important
reserve of aromatic food and medicinal plants. It was demonstrated that
medicinal plants play an important role in the pharmacopoeia (Badiaga, 2011).
Indeed, according to WHO (2002), about 80% of Africans have recourse to
traditional medicine that involves the use of plant active principles to treat
most diseases. Thus, a medicinal plant is defined as a plant that one or more
of its parts including a substance can be used for therapeutic purpose or as a
precursor of the synthetic antimicrobials (Sofowora, 1984). Medicinal plants
are of great importance in the health of the individuals and communities. It
was the advent of antibiotics in the 1950s that led to the decline on the use
of plant derivatives as antimicrobials (Marjorie, 1991).
Medicinal plants contain physiologically
active components which over the years have been exploited in the traditional
medical practices for the treatment of various ailments (Adebanjo,et al., 1983).
Medicinal plants represent a rich source
of antimicrobial agents (Manesh and Satish, 2008). Many of the plant materials
used in traditional medicine are readily available in rural areas at relatively
cheaper price than modern medicine (Mann et
al, 2008). Plant generally produce many secondary metabolites which constitute
an important source of microbicides, pesticides and many pharmaceutical drugs.
In Benin, several ethno botanical studies have focused on identifying medicinal
plant species (Sopkon and Quinsaui, 2002; Bieke, 2004). The cashew (Anacardium
accidentale) plant,a member of genus Anacardium
belonging to the family Anacardiaceae has been an important plant. Its
leaves, bark, roots and stem are traditionally used for the treatment of
numerous diseases such as allergy, cough,stomach ache, diarrhea and skin
infections (Chabiet al., 2013).
Besides these medicinal uses, cashew plays several other important roles. Its
wood is used mainly in carpentry, firewood or turned into charcoal (Akinwale,
2000) whereas the resins are used in the manufacture of plastics and natural
insecticides (Carvalcante et al,
2003).
In contrast
to conventional medicine which seeks the origin and causes of diseases and
infections, traditional medicine goes directly to the illness. The scientific study
of the use of plants allows establishing a link between the two medicines and
at times could eventually relieve populations (Badiaga, 2011). Nowadays
infectious diseases are responsible for 45% of death in low income countries
and 50% of premature deaths worldwide (Gangove, 2007). Groundnut (Arachis hypogea)is a geocarpic (
ripening its fruit underground) plant. It is native to Brazil and comes widely distributed
throughout South America. In the sixteenth century the Portuguese brought them
from Brazil to West Africa and they are introduced to China, Japan, and
Malaysia republic. Many fungi grow on solid substrate and secret extracellular
enzyme that break down various polymers to molecules that are then absorbed by
fungal colony. Consequently, enzyme derived from filamentous fungi have diverse
roles in nature being involved in bio-degradation of many types of agricultural
matters. Many fungi such as Aspergillus
niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida tropicali are pathogenic fungi. Fungi
that produce mycotoxins are microbes responsible for spoilage. The organism is
haploid and has no diploid phase except for the sexual sporangium.
1.2 AIM
To determine the antifungal
potential of cashew(Anacardium occidentale)
leaves extract on fungi isolates of groundnut seed.
1.3 OBJECTIVES
·
To extract the active components of
cashew leaves using ethanol.
·
To isolate fungi from groundnut seed
·
To determine the anti-microbial
potential of the extract.
·
To determine the minimum inhibitory
concentration of the extract of cashew leaves (Anacardium occidentale) on the fungi isolates of groundnut seed.
·
To determine the minimum fungicidal
concentration
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