Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii are opportunistic pathogen that causes many diseases in humans and are among main causes of hospital acquired infections .These pathogen can cause different infections in blood, lungs and the parts of the body This pathogen showed resistance to many drugs including the drugs that used to be first line in treatment like trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, aminoglycosides, cephalosporin and fluoroquinolones. This study aim at determining the susceptibility of P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii to crude lemon peel extract to help solve this problem.
Methods: The laboratory based experimental study was conducted in the Microbiology and Pharmacognosy laboratories at (CUHAS) and at Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices Authority. Lemon peel extract was prepared by cold maceration and used to test its activity against P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii clinical isolates obtained by convenient sampling stored in the laboratory from Bugando Medical Centre using well diffusion method and disc diffusion method where mean zone of inhibition were recorded.
Results: Lemon peel extract showed bactericidal properties to P. aeruginosa and no activity to A. baumannii. Overall mean zone of inhibition was 9.4(±3.8) mm whereby for P. aeruginosa was 10.5(±3.8) mm and for A. baumannii 6(±0.0) mm.
Conclusion: Results of this study showed that lemon peel extract from Citrus Limon showed antibacterial properties against P. aeruginosa. Plant medicinal sources are natural, cheap, relative safe, due to increase in antibiotic resistance among bacteria making them an important source of medicines. Since P. aeruginosa is among nosocomial infections causing bacteria lemon is a potential source of phytochemicals which can be used to reduce bacteria loads and treat patients
= OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS Lemon peel extract a preparation made when lemon peel is soaked in ethanol
= ABBREVIATIONS BMC Bugando Medical Centre CUHAS Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences MCA Macconkey Agar MHA Mueller Hinton Agar WHO World Health Organization