Comparative Study On the Antimicrobial Activities of Extracts of Unripe and Ripe Citrus Sinesis (L. Osbeck) Peel

Abstract

Citrus sinesis is well known as one of the world’s major fruit crop that is consumed fresh, juiced, and processed. The waste of Citrus sinesis processing industry can be used as a potential source of valuable products. A lot of work has been done on its essential oil which was tested for its natural antioxidant and anti-microbial properties but little work has been done on the antimicrobial property of the crude extract. This study is therefore designed to assess the antimicrobial properties of orange peel crude extract using pathogenic bacteria as target organisms. The main aim of the study is to evaluate the antibacterial activities of the ethanolic citrus peel extracts (bitter and sweet orange) on pathogenic bacteria following standard anti-bacterial activity procedures. The result of the antimicrobial assay of the orange peel extracts in this study showed characteristic zones of inhibition around the test organisms. These results suggest that the ethanolic extract of the peel of unripe orange exhibit higher antimicrobial potency against the test organisms compared to the ethanolic extract of the peel of ripe orange.