Antibacterial and antifungal activities of Garcinia kola

Abstract

Garcinia kola Heckel, often called bitter kola, is an indigenous medicinal tree belonging to the family Guttiferae. Phytochemical analysis of extracts from both root, stem, and seed of this plant, and other members of the genus show that they contain reasonable amounts of secondary metabolites, most prominent which are phenolic compounds including biflavonoids (GB-1, GB-2), xanthones and benzophenones (Onunkwo et al., 2004; Okunji et al., 2007). Interest in the use of plant and plant products in the management of ailments, has increased rapidly due to the widespread of antibiotic resistance and side effects of most conventional drugs used as antibiotics (Babayi et al., 2004). The setbacks in the use of conventional antibiotics, has call for wide investigation of the antimicrobial activities of plants having high potentials for antimicrobial properties like Garcinia kola, against pathogenic microorganisms with a view of identifying novel therapeutic properties, that could be exploited in the development of new antimicrobial agents against infectious diseases.