GC-MS Analysis and Antifungal Activity of Morinda Lucida Extract

The increasing climatic and environmental change and injudicious use of 
antibiotics has led recently to increase fungal infections resistance to 
available pharmaceutical antifungal drugs. Consequently, research for 
alternative local medicinal source of plant origin is on the increase, thus, the 
aim of this research work is to determine the chemical constituents and 
antifungal activity of Morindalucidaextracts. The Morindalucidaleaves were 
collected, dried under shade, pulverized and extracted with hexane, 
ethylacetate and methanol solvents using soxhlet extractor in order of 
increasing polarity. The three crude extracts were concentrated using rotary 
evaporator and the phytochemical screening was conducted according to 
standard methods while the antifungal analysis was conducted using the agar 
well diffusion method. Vacuum liquid chromatography was used for isolation 
of the oil from the hexane extract, which was characterized by gas 
chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The result shows the presence 
of glycoside, saponins, phenolics, alkaloids, terpenoids, steroids, eugenols 
and flavonoids with the exception of tanins in all the extracts. The hexane, 
ethylacetate and methanol extracts of Morindalucidaexhibit moderate, 
strong, and very strong antifungal inhibitory activities respectively against 
the tested fungi strains of Candida auris, Candida albicans, 
Aspergillusfumigatus, Trichophytonmentagrophytes and 
Epidermophytonfloccosum. The GC-MS analysis of the hexane extractshows 
48 compounds including hexadecanoic acid methyl ester, and squalene 
among others, which have reported antifungal activity. This study 
corroborates the use of the plants as antifungal agents by traditional people.