ABSTRACT
The
antimicrobial activity of alcoholic extract of cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale) was
tested on some pathogenic microorganisms collected from the laboratory. Fresh
cashew nuts were macerated and extracted using absolute methanol at a dilution
ratio of 1:2 for 24 hours at room temperature. This extract was filtered using
a Whatman filter paper No. 40 into a conical flask and the filtrate heated at
60°C for 45 minutes to remove the methanol. The filtrate was used to fill 5mm
diameter wells on nutrient agar plates (a total of 120 organisms comprising 20 Salmonella
typhi, 20 Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 10 Enterococcus faecalis were used for this assay). The following organisms were sensitive to crude extract of cashew
nut with mean zone of inhibition of 15mm for Escherichia coli, 20mm for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 17mm for both Staphylococcus
aureus and Klebsiella species, 12mm for Enterococcus
faecalis, and 10mm Salmonella typhi. This study shows that cashew nut extract has antimicrobial
activity against a reasonable range of pathogenic microorganisms and it is
advised that further research should be carried out to make it formulate
available for use.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 1
1.1 Background of study - - - - - - - 2
1.2
State of the problem - - - - - - - 3
1.3
Aim and Objective of study - - - - - - 3
CHAPTER
TWO
2.0
Literature review - - - - - - - - 4
2.1
Etymology - - - - - - - - 5
2.2
Dispersal - - - - - - - - - 5
2.3
Production - - - - - - - - 6
2.4
Nutrition - - - - - - - - - 7
2.5
Allergy - - - - - - - - - 8
2.6
Cashew oil - - - - - - - - 8
2.7
Medicinal uses - - - - - - - - 10
CHAPTER
THREE
3.0
Materials and methods - - - - - - - 11
3.1
Sample collection - - - - - - - 11
3.2
Cashew nut fluid extraction - - - - - - 11
3.3
Test organisms - - - - - - - - 11
3.4
Determination of maximum inhibitory dilution - - - - 12
CHAPTER
FOUR
4.0
Result - - - - - - - - - 13
4.1Table
of Zone of Inhibition - - - - - - 13
4.2Table
of Maximum Inhibitory Dilution - - - - - 14
CHAPTER
FIVE
5.0
Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation - - - - 15
5.1
Discussion - - - - - - - - 15
5.2 Conclusion - - - - - - - - 16
5.3
Recommendation - - - - - - - - 16
References - - - - - - - - 18
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Cashew is perennial tree crop which belongs to the
family Anacardiaceae.
It is believed to have
originated from the northernpart of South America from where it spread to many
tropical countries including Nigeria (Rosen
and Fordice, 2003).
Cashew is an evergreen
shrub or tree and grows best on well drained sandy soils with an annual
rainfall of at least 900mm. Cashew trees thrive on soils which are too poor and
too dry for most other crops. Cashew was originally grown for reforestation
scheme and preventing further erosion in some parts of Nigeria (Cruickshank et al., 2011). The use of the tree was
further extended when Nigerians embraced the fact that cashew nuts can be
processed for commercial purposes. This led to the large scale production of
cashew crops. Cashew farming now attracts much commercial interest and a lot of
money is spent in processing them into useful product such as cashew nut, shell
oil and cashew kernels. Cashew is also grown for its fleshy apple which is very
rich in its food values (Aderiye and Mbadiwe,2003).
The low commercial value hitherto attached to the cashew crop was associated
with underutilization of the apple, marked by considerable
fruit wastage annually.
Various products can now be made from cashew apples; these include fruit juice,
jam, pickles, date-like caramel syrups
and wines (Rune et al., 2006). The leaves, bark and
roots of the tree have been used for medicinal purposes by native healers. The
growing resistance of microorganisms to conventional antimicrobial agents is
becoming a source of concern to clinical microbiologists all over the world. As
a result, efforts are being made to develop antimicrobial agents from local
sources for use in chemotherapeutic regimes.
In contribution to this
search, this study evaluates the effect of cashew nut extract on the growth of
pathogenic microorganisms frequently associated with human infections (Ohler,
2010)
1.1 Background
of the Study
Plants are important in our everyday existence. They
provide our foods, produce the oxygen we breathe, and serve as raw materials
for many industrial products such as clothes, foot wears and so many others.
Plants also provide raw materials for our buildings and in the manufacture of
bio-fuels, dyes, perfumes, pesticides, adsorbents and drugs. The plant kingdom
has proven to be the most useful in the treatment of diseases and they provide
an important source of all the world’s pharmaceuticals. The most important of
these bioactive constituents of plants are steroids, terpenoids, carotenoids,
flavanoids, alkaloids, tannins and glycosides. Plants have served a valuable
starting material for drug development (Cruickshank et al., 2011). Antibiotics or antimicrobial substances like
saponins, glycosides, flavonoids and alkaloids are found to be distributed in
plants, yet these compounds were not well established due to the lack of
knowledge and techniques
(Varghese and Pundir, 2010). The
phytoconstituents which are phenols, anthraquinones, alkaloids, glycosides,
flavonoids and saponins are antimicrobial principles of plants. Plants are now
occupying important position in allopathic medicine, herbal medicine,
homoeopathy and aromatherapy. Medicinal plants are the sources of many
important drugs of the modern world. Many of these indigenous medicinal plants
are used as spices and food plants; they are also sometimes added to foods
meant for pregnant mothers for medicinal purpose (Varghese and
Pundir, 2010). Many plants are cheaper
and more accessible to most people especially in the developing countries than
orthodox medicine, and there is lower incidence of adverse effects after use.
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