POTENTIAL USES OF Moringa oleifera AND AN EXAMINATION OF ANTIBIOTIC EFFICACY CONFERRED BY M. oleifera SEED AND LEAF EXTRACTS USING CRUDE EXTRACTION TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE TO UNDERSERVED INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS

Moringa oleifera, a pantropical plant, is one of approximately thirteen species belonging to the monogeneric Moringaceae family. Ethnobotanical studies conducted in Guatemala found that one of the primary medicinal purposes of M. oleifera was its use for the treatment of infectious skin and mucosal diseases. As it is common practice for researchers to scientifically validate the efficacy of traditional medicine, it is less common for researchers to scientifically validate simple, reproducible means of conferring therapeutic benefits of plant parts. This study was conducted to investigate pragmatic extraction techniques for seed and leaf extracts of M. oleifera, a plant species for which numerous studies have demonstrated its antimicrobial efficacy. M. oleifera seeds and leaves were extracted using three different solvents (de-ionized water, inorganic ethanol, organic ethyl acetate) and two different extraction methods (crude, sophisticated). Sensitivity disks impregnated with the various extracts were used for antibiotic susceptibility testing of fourteen bacterial species: seven representative Gram-negative and seven representative Gram-positive. De-ionized water was the only solvent capable of extracting plant constituents which conferred bacterial inhibition. Seed extracts were found to inhibit a broader range of organisms (4) than leaf extracts (1). 75% of the organisms inhibited by seed extracts were Gram-positive bacteria. A single parameter, the zone of inhibition, was used to compare antibacterial efficacy between extraction methods, trials, and controls. No difference was observed between the zone of inhibition of crude and sophisticated extracts. Seed extracts demonstrated a zone of inhibition comparable to that of penicillin and tetracycline.