Abstract

Uvaria chamae is a plant used traditionally in treatment of wounds and other ailments. This work was conducted on qualitative assessment of crude extracts of U. chamae against wound isolated strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus mirabilis, determining the resistance and plasmid profiles of the isolates. Standard techniques were employed in crude extraction of roots and leaves of the plant followed by phytochemical screening. The test isolates were obtained from University of Uyo Medical Centre and re-screened using standard microbiological techniques. Antibacterial activities of the extracts on the isolates were assessed using agar-well diffusion technique. Plasmids were analyzed using gel electrophoresis. U. chamae contains tannis, alkaloids and other bioactive components. Antibacterial activities showed that ethanolic roots extracts possessed greater inhibitory effects on test isolates than any other extract forms with zones of inhibitions (Z.I) that ranged from 18±2.0 to 21±1.2 mm and resistances with no zone of inhibitions (N.I) observed with P. aeruginosa-1, P. mirabilis -1 and P. mirabilis-3 at 50 mg/ml concentration. Some test isolates were resistances to other extract forms and standard antibiotics. Some harbored plasmids ranged from 564 bps -23.13 kbp. Whereas resistance patterns of some isolates were not reverted, resistances of these bacteria to various antimicrobial agents are of public health implications.

Key words: Antibacterial activities, Uvaria chamae, wound isolates, resistance, plasmids.