Extractives from Vepris glandulosaLeaf Methanol Extract and Its Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

The challenges facing currently available antimicrobials such as resistance with no recent significant discoveries are a major health concern in Kenya characterized by prolonged hospitalization, high medical costs, and high annual fatalities. These challenges put great strain on healthcare systems and as such there is emphasis on new drug discoveries to mitigate the predicament. The objective of the study was to determine the antibacterial activity of Vepris glandulosa extracts after careful purification, isolation and structural characterization. In this study, crude methanol extracts were obtained using the cold extraction method. Isolation of compounds was accomplished by repeated column and thin-layer chromatography. One compound was obtained which was subjected to both 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analysis and the spectroscopic data obtained was used to propose the structure. The compound had its structure fully elucidated and was confirmed by comparing its NMR spectroscopic data with the literature reported to be Lupeol. Lupeol showed antibacterial activity against selected gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.