Abstract The present study was conducted in order to justify the use of Afromomum melegueta seeds intraditional medicine for the treatment of certain infectious diseases and to assess the influence of heat during the extraction of the active principles of the drug decoction on the antibacterial activity. Then, a bacteriological study was conducted to compare the antibacterial activity of the total aqueous and ethanolic extracts. In this study, it was also necessary question of testing the hypothesis that the addition of native salt in the total aqueous extracts of A. melegueta seeds in traditional medicine optimizes the antibacterial activity against three bacterial strains of which Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp. and Staphylococcus aureus. A phytochemical screening was performed to identify the major chemical groups present in total extracts (aqueous and ethanolic) of A. melegueta seeds. The results showed that all tested samples have the antibacterial activity. However, the addition of native salt and aqueous extract mixture of A. melegueta seeds seems to have an antagonistic effect and showed a low activity compared to aqueous extracts tested individually. In addition, the aqueous extracts, in particular the macerated revealed a strong activity on the bacterial strains tested compared to other extracts. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, tannins and total polyphenols in the aqueous extracts and the presence of quinones, steroids and triterpenoids in the ethanolic extracts. The seeds of A. melegueta have antibacterial molecules and can be used for the treatment of certain infectious diseases especially for Klebsiella infections.
Keywords Afromomum melegueta, Phytochemical screening, Antibacterial activity, native salt.