Abstract Many Acacia species find wide applications in traditional medicine. Data on the medicinally important Acacia mellifera is very scarce. This study was designed to investigate the constituents of Acacia mellifera hexane fraction and to screen its antimicrobial potential. The hexane fraction was investigated by GC-MS analysis. The gas chromatogram revealed the following order of abundance: Fatty acids comprised the major constituents (87.40 %) followed the steroidal alcohol gamma-ergostenol (7.26 %), the aldehyde tridecanedial (3.44 %), hydrocarbons (1.81 %) and some terpenes and sesquiterpenes (0.09 %). The hexane extract was evaluated for antimicrobial activity against five standard human pathogens. At a concentration of 100mg/ml, the hexane extract showed moderate activity against all test organisms. It also exhibited moderate activity at 50mg/ml against Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Bacillus subtilis and the fungal species Candida albicans. Moderate activity against Bacillus subtilis and Candida albicans was also observed at 25mg/ml.
Keywords Acacia mellifera, Hexane extract, GC-MS analysis, Antimicrobial activity.