Extraction, Characterization And Anti Microbial Screening Of White Star Apple (Crysophyllum Albidum) Seed Oil

Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation

4.1 Discussion

This work is like a surface touch in investigation of the C. albidumseed oil and its active properties; the characterization of the oil such as the rancidity, acid value, saponification value, Iodine value, etc and its anti-microbial screening.

The measure of its rancidity identifies the durability of the oil with time; when the oil stays for a long period of time, it begins to entrap atmospheric oxygen, making it sour to taste. Thereby, we can say the oil has gone rancid. Rancidity is also called the peroxide value of an oil which defines rancidity to be the amount of oxygen absorbed by 1g of oil in a given period.

The saponification value represents the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide (KOH) required to saponify 1g of the fat. It is a measure of the amount of carboxylic acid groups.

The measure of its acid value is obtained by the number of milligram of KOH required to neutralize the free fatty acid. The acid number is also important in determining the amount of carboxylic acid group.

An iodine solution is yellow brown in colour, any chemical group in the sample that react with iodine will make the colour disappear at a precise concentration. The amount of iodine solution thus required to keep the solution yellow/brown before colour disappears is thus the measure of the amount of iodine sensitive reactive groups i.e the iodine value of the sample. One application of the iodine number is the determination of the number of unsaturation or chain length contained in fatty acids of the sample.

The specific gravity is the ratio of density (mass of a unit volume) of the sample to the density (mass of the same unit volume) of the reference substance (water). The reference is nearly always water for liquids and air for gases.

Specific gravity is used in industry as a simple means of obtaining information about the concentration of solutions.
From the result of the antimicrobial sensitivity test carried out on Crysophyllum albidumextracts against species of bacteria and fungi. It is clear that the extract possessed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Eschericia coli, B. subfilis, Candida albican and A. flavus. The result thus shows that the extract possess a broad spectrum of activity with the highest zone of inhibition 18mm on B. subfilis. P. pyogens was however susceptible to the extract. The fungi isolate also showed significant effect with a zone of inhibition of 9mm on A. flavus. The result show that Crysophyllum albidumoil extract has a stronger activity on B. subfilis. The result also showed that Crysophyllum albidumoil could be used for the treatment of infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Eschericia coli, B. subfilis, Candida albican and A. flavus.

These findings supports the reason why Crysophyllum albidumhas position among medical plants used for the treatment of microbial infections.

4.2 Conclusion

The characterization analysis of C. albidum shows that the oil possess almost an average value for each measure. This analysis proves that the sample contains all oil properties and characteristics of an oil and hence useful for oil base medicinal products.

Hence also, the anti-microbial and anti-fungal spectrum of the oil of C. albidum is broad, scanning across gram positive and gram negative organism. The occurrence of these pharmacological active constituents with known therapeutic functions suggests that it can be used to cure diseases and also substantiate the herbalist claims that the sample can be employed successfully to treat many diseases caused by Escherichia colli, Staphylococcus aureus, S. pyogens, B. subphilis, Candida albican, Acrylo flavus.

4.3 Recommendation

Since the pharmacological screening of seed oil of C. albidum confirmed the medicinal values of this plant seed oil and since the plant grows abundantly in this part of the world, they are highly recommended to be tapped as local source for potential medicinal application more especially in this era of issue of adulterated and expired drugs
More work need to be done on this research being that the oil was not purified. The detection of such anti-microbial effects may be caused by the additives present in the oil at its crude state. Even the use of the oil for primary purposes such as flavouring and preservation of foods will be of interest for further study. Hence, it has been recommended that the structure of the active compounds, the dosages and toxicological effects should be exhaustively investigated on using more sophisticated analytical instruments like NMR, MS, FTIR, GC-MS, etc.