Bacteriological Quality of Some Local Herbal Drugs Sold In Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Antibacterial Susceptibility of Isolates Compared with Clinical Isolates

Amala Smart Enoch* and Alaye Diane

Rivers State, Nigeria

Science Rivers State University Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. Email: smart.amala@yahoo.com agents.

identified clinical isolates of E. coli and S. aureus.

herbal drugs.

Bacteriological Quality of Some Local Herbal Drugs Sold In Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Antibacterial Susceptibility of Isolates Compared with Clinical Isolates Ann Adv Biomed Sci

the local herbal drugs and the orthodox drugs. Contaminated local herbal drugs might serve as means of transmitting infections and medium for exchanging resistant genes by the contaminating bacteria. The antibacterial property of herbal drugs may have been altered by the activities of bacteria Keywords: Antibacterial; Bacterial Quality; Herbal Drugs; Marketed

Introduction

Herbal medicines also known as botanical medicine or phytomedicines are herbal materials, herbal preparations and finished herbal products that contain parts of plant materials as active ingredients [1]. The plant material includes seeds, berries, roots, leaves, barks or flowers [2]. The use of herbal medicine had been part of human culture because some possess important therapeutic properties for human cure and even animal diseases [3]. Plants have been shown to posses healing potentials. The use of plant, plant extracts or chemical derived from plants to treat diseases and other therapeutic modalities is not disputable [4]. More than 75 pure compounds derived from higher plants were in use in herbal medicine, although some have been synthesized in the laboratory [5]. For a plant or plant extract to be used as herbal drug it must contain therapeutic substances of health benefit and it was estimated that half of all synthetic drugs have a natural origin [6]. Many studies have shown the antimicrobial efficiency and or properties of herbal medications [7]. Some microbes may develop resistance due to superbug that renders antimicrobial therapy infective and this may lead to persistence of infection and the risk of spreading the resistant gene to other microbes [8].

The rapid and sudden increase in microbial resistance globally is a threat to human life and has dammed the effective treatment of infectious diseases [9]. Factors that have enhance the spread of antimicrobial resistant microbes were, over use of antimicrobial agent, failure of pharmaceutical companies formulating new antimicrobial agents and the use of sub-inhibitory concentration of prescribed antimicrobial agents. People have turned away from conventional medicines, with the faith that natural substances such as herbs are safer than synthetic substances. Herbal drugs are usually not evaluated for purity and consistency of the active compounds and they sometimes contain contaminants [10]. Inappropriate uses of antimicrobial agents have contributed to resistance of microbes to antimicrobial agents.

Amala Smart Enoch and Alaye Diane. Bacteriological Quality of Some Local Herbal Drugs Sold In Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Antibacterial Susceptibility of Isolates Compared with Clinical Isolates. Ann Adv Biomed Sci 2019, 2(2): 000139.

A major problem of local herbal drugs is the contamination with potential pathogenic bacteria. The first case of drug induced infection was when bubonic plaque vaccine was contaminated with bacilli in 1907. Another was Salmonella infection associated with tyroidine tablets and pacreatine powder, Pseudomonas capacia present in iodated provdone and oncular infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in hydrocortisone ointment [11, 12, 13]. In Kenya the bacteria isolated from unregulated medicinal products were, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Enterobacter aerogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. [14]. Examining the quality of herbal drugs in Thailand, yeasts and molds were found in 10 samples, E. coli in 11 samples, S. aureus in 45 samples, Salmonella in 12 samples and Clostridium in 18 samples [15]. In assessments of the microbiological quality of some marketed herbal drugs from public market in the city of Trichy India the marketed herbal drugs had total aerobic counts above WHO bacteriological limits. The bacteria isolated were, S. aureus, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shegella sp. and Salmonella sp. [16]. The aim of this research was to determine the bacteriological quality of some local herbal drug marketed in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and the antimicrobial susceptibility of isolated bacteria to the herbal drugs, as compared to conventional antimicrobial agents and isolates form clinical sources.

Materials and Methods

• Collection of Samples: Ten different local herbal drugs commonly marketed were purchased from the local herbal drug hawkers in Diobu area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The herbal drugs were taken immediately to the Microbiology Laboratory Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Rivers State University Port Harcourt for examination.
• Preparation of Media: Nutrient, MacConkey and Muller Honton agar were reconstituted and sterilized according to the manufacturer’s instructions at 1210C for 15 minutes and stored in the refrigerator for subsequent uses.

Copyright© Amala Smart Enoch and Alaye Diane.

Discussion

The ten (10) local herbal drugs examined, 90% used water as solvent, while 10% used alcohol as solvent. Out of these, 60% of the herbal drugs were combination of root and leaves, while 40% were roots only. The herbalist might be acquainted with the trees from which they obtain the roots and leaves but it may be difficult to quantify the quantity or quantities of the active ingredient (phytochemical constituents) of the roots and leaves responsible for the medicinal values. The type of soil a plants is grown (rich or poor) might play a major role in determining the amount of the active ingredients accumulated by the plant (phytochemicals) and extracts from the tree by the solvent for therapeutic use.

The bacteria isolated from herbal drugs in this study were E. coli (69.9%), Staphylococci (18.9%), Klebsiella sp. (3.7%) and Bacillus sp. (7.5%) respectively. In a study on microbiological contamination of liquid herbal medicinal products the bacteria isolated were Klebsiella pneumonia 31(34%), Enterobacter aerogenes 26(29.2%), Enterobacter cloacae 17(19.1%), E. coli 11(12.4%) and some unidentified GMB 4(4.5%). The contaminations were attributed to low education, lack of formal training in the process and poor hygienic level in processing and packaging [9]. Previous report had also shown that Salmonella sp., E. coli, S. aureus, Shigella sp. and other Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria were associated with the contamination herbal drug [18]. The microbial contamination of herbal drugs might cause bio- deterioration and reduction and the efficacy of the herbal drugs. Bacteria might also produce toxin that may render herbal drugs unsafe for human consumption [19, 20].

In another study on the microbial quality of herbal drugs, in India the bacteria isolated were S. aureus, E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, shigella sp. Salmonella sp. and S. aureus [16]. S. aureus was believed to contaminate during plant harvesting, manure and unhygienic handling by manufacturers and users [20]. In Kenya, the bacteria isolated were E. coli, S. aureus, Salmonella sp., Klebsiella sp., Enterobacter sp. and Shigella sp. respectively. The Amala Smart Enoch and Alaye Diane. Bacteriological Quality of Some Local Herbal Drugs Sold In Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Antibacterial Susceptibility of Isolates Compared with Clinical Isolates. Ann Adv Biomed Sci 2019, 2(2): 000139.

researchers noted that the herbal drugs have poor microbial quality and were contaminated with pathogenic microbes. They called for the need to regulate herbal drug production to enhance microbial quality and safety [14]. In Thailand workers investigating the microbial quality of herbal products isolated yeasts and molds in 10 samples, E. coli in 11 samples, S. aureus in 45 samples, Salmonella sp. in 12 samples and Clostridium sp. in 8 samples. It was concluded that contamination with enterobacteria might originate from faecal-oral route, Clostridium sp. from soil and intestinal tract of animals; most of the herbal drugs marketed do not conform to standards [15]. Herbal product in Nigeria requires urgent and serious focus in production processes to provide better quality for consumer health and to compete favourably in international market. Unsterile containers (recycled water bottles) and water used as solvents might aid contamination. Hawkers have a 100ml glass cup used to dispense for customers which may be a medium of transferring bacteria from one source to another. There is need for global harmonization of WHO specific guidelines for the assessment of safety, efficacy, quality and purity throughout all phases of the cycle [21].

The bacteria isolated from the examined local herbal drugs were resistant to all the conventional antibiotics tested against them but the clinical isolates were susceptible to about 50% of the antibiotics. The activities of contaminating bacteria may have been associated with the bio-deterioration and reduced potency of the herbal drugs. The bacteria may as well produce toxin which may results to it’s flabby for human consumption [19]. Multidrug resistant bacteria are responsible for serious infections in humans and the rate is on increase globally. Bacterial resistant to multiple antibiotics may use activation of efflux pump, ABC-transport genes or specific antibiotic activating genes. The genes responsible could be transferred from one bacterium to another in the liquid local herbal products.