Phytochemical Analysis, Nutritional Composition and Antimicrobial Activities of White Mulberry (Morus alba)

The phytochemical analysis, nutritional composition and antimicrobial activities of two variants of Morus alba were investigated using standard procedures. The leaves were dried under room temperature and then extracted with cold water, hot water and ethanol (99.7% vol./vol.). The extracts were concentrated using rotary evaporator and kept in desiccators for further analysis. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of aqueous (hot and cold) and ethanol extracts of white mulberry plant (M. alba) were carried out in vitro by agar diffusion-method against some human pathogenic microbes. Antibacterial potential of the M. alba (White mulberry plant) extracts were screened against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus faecium, Escherichia coli, Neisseria gonorrheae, Proteus vulgaricus, while the antifungal properties were done on Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus tamari, Fusarium oxysporum and Penicilium oxalicum. Bacitracin and streptomycin were used as the standard reference antibiotics. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of saponins, phenolics and alkaloids while the antinutrients such as tannins, phytate and oxalate were also present in appreciable amounts. The nutritional evaluation showed that the plant is low in crude protein, crude fat and crude fibre and the mineral compositions confirmed the presence of calcium, zinc, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium. The result also showed that the ethanolic extracts had wider range of activity on the test organisms with high zone of inhibition when compared to the standard antibiotics. The cold extract had lower MIC values compared to the MIC values of the ethanolic extract which indicate that cold extract of the plants are more potent in suppressing microbial growth than the ethanolic extracts. This study supports the folklore use of plants (herbal extracts) in traditional medicines to cure many diseases like diarrhea, intestinal tract, throat, ear infections, fever and skin diseases and its potential in food supplements.