Medicinal properties of whole fruit extracts of Nauclea latifolia

The continuous search for novel compounds against microbial infections and oxidative stress-induced debilitating diseases like diabetes has intensified in recent years. This study evaluated the phytochemical constituents, time-kill antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antidiabetic potentials of whole fruit extracts of Nauclea latifolia Smith. The crude extract and fractions of whole fruit of NL exhibited a broad spectrum antibacterial activity and the rate of killing of the extract appears to be time and concentration dependent. The presence of phytoconstituents were also recorded in the whole fruit. N-butanol fraction showed the highest radical scavenging activities while chloroform and n-butanol fraction showed strong inhibitory potentials against -amylase and -glucosidase respectively. The results obtained showed that whole fruit of NL elicited commendable antimicrobial, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities which are attributed to the presence of its phytoconstituents and thus support its folkloric uses in the treatment of microbial infections and oxidative stress-mediated diseases like hyperglycaemia.