Phytochemical Screening and Antimicrobial Evaluation of Ethanol and N-Hexane Extracts of Capsicum frutescens Fruit

Medicinal plants have demonstrated strong promise as useful alternatives for the development of therapeutics with little or no side effects relative to synthetic drugs, as document by various studies. In this study, we evaluate the antimicrobial potentials of the methanol and n-hexane extracts of Capsicum frutescens fruit to establish its use in traditional medicine. The phytochemical and fatty acid profile is also presented. Phytochemical composition, fatty acid composition and antimicrobial activities of the extracts were performed following standard methods. Our results showed that while Tannins and phenols were not present in the n-hexane extract, alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, glycosides and sterols were present. However, all phytochemicals evaluated were present in the ethanol extract. FTIR analysis of the extracts showed a strong absorption band at 3396 cm-1 for ethanol extract while the band is seen to diminish in the hexane extract. The band in the range 2978 – 2922 cm-1 was related to symmetric -CH3 stretching, 2855 - 2124 cm-1 due to C-H stretching, 1744 – 1640 cm-1 due to C=O stretching, 1461 – 1382 cm-1 due to -CH3CH bending of alkanes, 1159 – 1043 cm-1 due to =C-O-C- symmetric stretching and 879 – 723 cm-1 due to C-Cl stretching of alkyl halides as major spectral bands. Fatty acid profile showed the presence of several saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. The hexane and ethanol extracts respectively demonstrated significant antimicrobial potential against Escherichia coli (10.00±0.10 mm and 13.00±0.12 mm) and Staphylococcus aureus (11.00±0.21 mm and 13.00±0.03 mm) among other microbes compare to the control. These showed that the extract can be used as antimicrobial agent. Our data provides a preliminary explanation for the observed use of Capsicum frutescens fruits in traditional medicines for the treatment of bacterial infections.