| dc.description.abstract | Herbal medicines have been used for many years and still are in widespread use in developing countries while the developed countries are rapidly adopting them as complementary alternative medicine. Senna didymobotrya (Fresen.) H. S. Irwin and Barneby is known amongst many communities for treatment of a variety of ailments/diseases and as such this research endevoured to unravel its medicinal properties and its morphometric diversity. The objectives of this study were to assess phenetic diversity, determine the phytochemical properties and evaluate the antibacterial and antifungal activities of crude extracts of Senna didymobotrya. A survey was carried out in Siaya, Kisumu, Nandi and Nakuru Counties to collect S. didymobotrya plants and also to characterize them phenetically using seventeen quantitative characters. Samples from the stem bark, root bark, leaves, flowers and immature pods were collected from the three Counties (Siaya, Nandi and Nakuru) for phytochemical screening. The plant samples were air - dried, ground and extracted using methanol. The crude extracts were quantified and the phytochemical properties determined. Then the extracts were reconstituted and incorporated into growth media to obtain concentrations of 0%, 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10%. Bioassays were carried out on four pathogens namely, Escherichia coli (Migula), Staphylococcus aureus (Rosenbach), Trichophyton tonsurans (Malmsten) and Candida albicans (Robin). The growth of cultures on the plates was measured over a period of eight days for bacteria and sixteen days for fungi. The area under disease progress stairs was determined and subjected to ANOVA and means compared using statistical analytical system (SAS) computer application package. Results on phenetic characters subjected to principal component analysis indicated that the plant height, stem height, stem diameter, habitat, pod length, pod width and number of seeds accounted for a cumulative percentage of 70% and above. Dendrogram constructed indicated that plants obtained from the same geographical locations were clustered into four with close relationship. The quantity of extracts indicated that the root barks had the highest percentage yield of crude extract of 34.8% from Nandi while the leaves from Nakuru had 33.2%. The flowers had the least crude extract yield of 1.6% from Siaya while immature pods had 5.5% from Nakuru. On phytochemical analysis, all plant parts extracts had terpenoids, phenols and steroids. The growth of S. aureus was completely inhibited by root bark at 2.5%, stem bark at 7.5% while immature pods, flowers and leaves extracts did not have significant effect. Growth on E. coli was completely inhibited at 7 .5% by stem bark extracts while the root bark inhibited growth at 10%. Bioassays on Candida albicans 'showed that all plant part extracts did not have any significant effect on its growth. Growth of T. tonsurans was completely inhibited by immature pods extract at 10%, the leaves and flowers extracts inhibited the growth at 7.5%. The stem and root bark extracts inhibited growth at 5 %. In conclusion, further research should be carried out on genetic diversity and phytochemical properties of the crude extracts. On the conservation front, harvesting of root and stem barks may lead to depletion of the plant. The stem and root barks are potent than leaves, flowers and pod extracts. The phenetic diversity of S. didymobotyra is not diversified in Kenya. The extracts were more potent on topical pathogens than internal pathogens. | en_US |