Abstract:
Brachystegia boehmii leaf extracts are ethnopharmacological known to treat microbial infections in
burn wounds. Coupling the action of the traditional plant medicine and nanotechnology gives rise
to innovative strategies for healing burn wounds. This study aimed to determine the effect of B.
boehmii extracts and their green synthesised nanoparticles on bacteria which infect burn wounds.
The effects of water, chloroform and methanolic leaf extracts were compared with the effects of
the phytosynthesised silver nanoparticles on burn wound infectious bacteria. Dried leaves were
extracted using the maceration technique, followed by filtration and concentration of the filtrate
using a rotavapor. Drying was achieved by using a centrivap and appropriate masses were dissolved
in dimethyl sulfoxide to achieve 100 mg/ml concentrations. Silver nanoparticles were synthesised
using the methanol extract of the plant leaves and characterised using a UV–VIS spectrophotometer.
The disc diffusion method was used to assess the bacterial susceptibility levels with Ciprofloxacin
as the positive control and DMSO and 1mM silver nitrate as the negative controls. The green synthesised
silver nanoparticles produced a yellowish colour with a peak at 420nm wavelength. They
exhibited antibacterial activity against all five bacteria; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae,
Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis comparable to those of
the B. boehmii leaf solvent extracts. A zone of inhibition of 20±1.00mmwas obtained on the action
of B. boehmii leaf extract against P. aeruginosa. Plant synthesised nanoparticles exhibited broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and hence are potential future burn wound antibacterial therapeutics
