Evaluation of Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination and Antimicrobial Activity of Some Liquid Herbal Medicinal Products Sold in Umuahia, Abia State, South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate pathogenic bacterial contamination and antibacterial activity of some liquid herbal medicinal products (LHMPs) sold on the streets of Umuahia, Abia State.

Method: Twenty LHMPs sold in Umuahia were screened for bacterial contamination. Isolation and identification were carried out using standard microbiological methods in Microbiology Department of Michael Okpara University between October and November 2015. The antimicrobial activity of the products that showed no bacteria growth (P3, P10, P13 and P17) were further evaluated by determining their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against some bacteria isolates. Antibiotics susceptibility pattern was evaluated using disc diffusion technique.

Result: Sixteen out of twenty LHMPs were contaminated. Escherichia coli was the highest isolate with 21.9% followed by Staphylococcus aureus (14.6%). Salmonella spp was the least occurring isolate with a percentage occurrence of 4.9%. Most isolates were resistant to amoxicillin and chloramphenicol. Levofloxacin and ceftriazone showed very encouraging results, with a percentage susceptibility of 100% and 88.9% in E. coli respectively. The highest total viable count among the products was 11.5 x 10⁸cfu/ml while the least was 3.6 x 10⁶ cfu/ml.

Conclusion: Most traditionally prepared liquid herbal drugs sold in Umuahia are grossly contaminated with a wide variety of potentially pathogenic bacteria.