ABSTRACT

A plant based diet reduces the risk of development of several chronic diseases. It is a fact that antioxidants contribute to this protection. The present investigation was based on the assessment of the effectiveness of the ethanolic extract of Ocimum gratissimum on pathogens isolated from clinical samples using standard microbiological techniques and also to assess the pre-stated role of the different phytochemicals in the antioxidant activity of the plants. Ethanolic extracts of Ocimum gratissimum were investigated to evaluate free radical scavenging effect by nitric oxide scavenging activity, anti-lipid peroxidation activity and DPPH radical scavenging activity. The ic 50 for nitric oxide yielded 56.91 ± 0.33 at 800tg/m1, 54.76 ± 1.35 at 400kg/mi for anti- lipid peroxidation but for DPPH, the results were less when compared with the standard meaning that an increase in concentration is required for the extract to be more effective.. For its antibacterial activity, the results at different graded concentrations (500,250,125,62.25,31mg/mi) of the ethanolic extract containing 500mg showed he highest mean ±SD zones of inhibition against the clinical pathogens while the discs containing 31mg showed the lowest inhibitory zones for Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp. , and proteus mirabiis and 62.25mg for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pneumonia. The results obtained from this research implies that the ethanolic  extracts of O. gratissimum could be useful in the treatment of infections and for scavenging free radicals and its effectiveness increases with increasing concentration