Eugene BS Conteh, Abdulai Turay, Senesie Kamara, Ishmael Abdulrahman Kamara, Denis Conteh and Mohamed Bockarie

Background: Traditional medicines remain central to primary health care in West Africa. Nauclea latifolia is widely used ethnomedicinally and contains diverse secondary metabolites with reported bioactivities (Ayeleso et al., 2014; Enabulele et al., 2017; Haudecoeur et al., 2017) ^{[3, 7, 9]}. Objective: To quantify powdered and crude extract yields; qualitatively profile phytochemicals; establish TLC fingerprints; and evaluate in‑vitro antibacterial activity of ethanol and ethyl acetate extracts from leaves, stems, and roots of the plant. Methods: Plant parts were dried, powdered, and Soxhlet‑extracted with 95% ethanol or ethyl acetate. Qualitative phytochemical screening followed standard pharmacognosy methods (Sofowora, 1993; Harborne, 1998; Evans, 2009) ^{[14, 10, 8]}. TLC used chloroform:methanol (9:1) and hexane:chloroform (9:1) with Rf determination. Antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli employed agar well diffusion on Mueller-Hinton agar; ciprofloxacin (5 µg) and DMSO were positive/negative controls. Results: Powdered yields: leaves 750 g, stems 520 g, roots 780 g. Total crude extract: 35.08 g (overall 2.33%). Ethanol extracts were richer in alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, glycosides, triterpenes, resins, and phenolics. TLC showed 2-4 spots per extract (Rf 0.14-0.75). Antibacterial zones (mm) ranged 4.5-13.0 for extracts vs 14.5-18.0 for ciprofloxacin; DMSO 0.0. Conclusion: Findings demonstrate solvent‑ and part‑dependent phytochemical diversity and antibacterial activity, with ethanol extracts generally outperforming ethyl acetate. Results support ethnomedicinal applications and justify MIC/MBC determination and bioassay‑guided isolation (Akinyemi et al., 2005; Akinmoladun et al., 2007; Edeoga et al., 2005; Osuala et al., 2020) ^{[2, 1, 5, 12]}.

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