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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Item Type: Project Material | Size: 51 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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