Microbial quality and antibacterial activity of water-processed herbal concoctions sold within Kaduna metropolis against urinary tract infection isolates

Abstract

The use of herbal concoction in the treatment of diseases has been in existence from time immemorial. Many of these herbal mixtures are not produced under hygienic conditions and safety issues associated with them may have an exacerbated impact in immunocompromised and elderly individuals. This study assessed the microbial loads of locally- prepared water-processed herbal concoctions sold within Kaduna metropolis and their activity on urinary tract clinical isolates. In triplicates, eight (8) water - processed herbal concoctions sold in Kaduna metropolis, Nigeria purchased randomly from different locations were evaluated for the presence of microorganisms. The mean total viable bacterial count was determined by the plate count method. Bacteria were identified upon growth on culture media and using conventional biochemical tests. The antibiotics susceptibility profile of the isolates from the herbal concoctions as well as the susceptibility of urinary tract infection isolates to the herbal formulations were determined using Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique and analyzed using chi-square statistic. Bacteria isolated from the herbal samples had mean bacterial load that exceeded the safety limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO). They include Staphylococcus aureus (25%), Bacillus specie (16.67%), S. typhi (16.67%), Pseudomonas specie (12.50%), E. coli (8.33%), Enterococcus specie (8.33%), Streptococcus specie (8.33%) and Klebsiella specie (4.17%). The water- processed herbal concoctions showed poor antibacterial activity against the clinical isolates. The isolates from the herbal concoctions showed more resistance to standard antibiotics than the clinical isolates. The study thus shows the presence of microbial contaminants, which exceeded the safety limits of 105 CFU/ml or g according to World Health Organization for herbal preparation. The use of locally prepared water- processed herbal medicine sold in Kaduna could thus, pose a major health risk due to lack of microbial quality control.