Antibacterial activity of fiber and seed of ceiba pentandra

Ceiba pentandra tree or kapok tree is a plant that normally found in the wild, it belong to the family of Bombacaceae. The English name, silk cotton tree is derived from floss and is a universal trade name. Various part of the plant are essential, used for various illness as laxative, as foliage for goat, trunk for domestic plank and the wood pulp for paper. The bark of kapok is used as bowel-complaint and diarrhea as well as for skin medicine. In addition, the kapok seed oil used as medicine in the management of various chronic diseases. The kapok fiber is function as filling for pillow. In Nigeria, the leaves are known as common vegetables. In the present study, antimicrobial activity of methanolic extract of seed and fiber of Ceiba pentandra were tested by paper disc diffusion method and tested against five bacterial species, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereues, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella virchow. Results indicated that there are some of methanolic extractions show their antimicrobial activity against the gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The kapok fiber extract shows the higher of zone inhibition (40mm) for both undiluted and concentration compared to kapok seed extract which is only shows the result for undiluted extract. The plant can be used in treating urinary and gastrointestinal tract, wound and mycotic infections associated with the test organism and can be commercialized as wound dressing.