Microbiological Quality Evaluation of Typhoid and Diarrheal Herbal Formulations Sold in Yola and Environs

Abstract

The study was aimed at evaluating the microbiological quality of herbal formulations sold in Yola and environs. Herbal formulations were collected from three different areas namely; Yola, Jimeta, and Girei local government areas. The assessment of the microbiological quality of the herbal formulations was carried out using standard procedures. For antimicrobial susceptibility testing, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) were determined. The herbal formulations have an inhibitory effect on the test isolate at 12.5mg/mL to 25mg/mL. However, when the concentration of the herbal formulations was increased to 50mg/mL it inhibited all the test organisms. Typhoid formulations collected from Girei have the highest viable count with 1.85x10^6 CFU/mL and the count is lowest in samples collected from Yola with 3.1x10^5 CFU/mL. Viable counts were also found to be highest in diarrhea formulations collected from Yola with 9.17x10^5 CFU/mL and lowest in Jimeta with 3.7x10^5 CFU/mL. Fungal count was found to be highest in samples collected from Girei with 1.85x10^6 CFU/mL and lowest in Yola with 3.1x10^5 CFU/mL. It is highest in samples collected from Yola with 9.1x10^5 CFU/mL and lowest in those collected from Jimeta. The results showed that all the samples collected from Girei were found to be contaminated with E. coli and Salmonella typhi. Those collected from Jimeta were contaminated with S. aureus. While the samples collected from Yola were found to be contaminated with E. coli, S. aureus, and Bacillus spp. However, all the samples collected from the three different study areas were found to be contaminated with fungi mainly Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp.