Sesame Leaf

Intensive studies on extracts and biologically active compounds isolated

from medicinal plants have doubled in the last decade worldwide.

However, as a result of paucity of knowledge and folkloric claim on the

effectiveness of sesame leaves in infectious disease treatments, we

aimed to determine the synergistic antimicrobial activity of essential

oils and lignans present in the crude leaves extracts of Sesame radiatum

and Sesame indicum.

Ethanolic, methanolic and aqueous extracts of both

leaves were studied for their in-vitro synergistic antimicrobial

activity against both gram positive and gram negative micro-organisms,

and Yeast using Agar diffusion method. The GC-MS phytochemical screening

of methanolic extract showed that the major compounds in essential oils

are of carboxylic acids and phenolic groups especially, the most potent

antioxidants known to man like sesamol, sesamolin and sesamin among

others.

<b>Methanolic and ethanolic extracts</b> have broad spectrum

antimicrobial effect against all the tested pathogenic micro-organisms

except Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus respectively,

while the <b>aqueous extract </b>exhibited inhibitory activity on

Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae and Candida albicans.

The result confirmed the folkloric claims of the antimicrobial

effectiveness of locally consumed sesame leaves extracts especially

against bacterial and common skin infection in many areas of Nigeria. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20161911">Source</a>