Antibacterial Activities of Some Commercially Available Herbal Remedies in Owerri Imo State

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the antibacterial activities of 10 different herbal medicinal products sourced from the traditional medicine sales outlets and at the traditional medical trade fare in Imo State of Nigeria. The streaking and the agar-well diffusion methods were adopted for the inoculation of test organisms and sensitivity testing respectively. The antibacterial activities of the products varied considerably. From the screening experiments, product H showed the best antibacterial activity while production B had the least antibacterial activity by inhibiting only Escherichia coli with zone diameter of 16.75+0.01mm and MIC/MBC index of 0.50. The highest zone of inhibition was obtained with product D against Staphylococcus aeurus (26.45+0.06mm) and the MIC value of 50.0mg/ml. Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed a high level of resistance to the products and was slightly inhibited by only product G with zone diameter of 3.78+0.14mm. There is need to standardize, monitor and regulate the product of herbal remedies available in the Nigerian markets.

Key words: Antibacterial activity, commercially available, herbal remedies