Comparative Effects of Prepared and Vended Herbs on Selected Diarrhoegenic Bacteria in Ekiti State

Abstract

Herbs contamination by some pathogenic bacteria poses a major threat to the usage as a treatment option for diarrheagenic bacteria. This study was carried out to determine the comparative effects of prepared and vended herbs sold within Ado-Ekiti metropolis on selected diarrhogenic bacteria. Herb was prepared in the laboratory under a strict aseptic condition, and a total of 50 vended herbs samples were purchased from vendors across ten different locations within Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. All herb samples were analyzed using standard microbiological techniques, total bacteria count, Staphylococcal counts, coliform counts and fungal counts were carried out. Bacteria colonies on the agar plates were identified using morphological and biochemical characterization. The susceptibility testing of the vended and prepared herbs on selected diarrheagenic bacteria; Shigella  dysenteriae, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi were carried out using agar well diffusion method. The haematological and histological effects of the herbs were done using standard haematological and histological procedures respectively. The data generated were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the level of significance was set at 0.05. There was a low microbial count in the prepared herb compared to the vended herbs, Staphylococcal counts, coliform counts and fungal counts of the vended herbs ranged from 15.50±0.65 to 52.00±0.36 cfu/100ml, 7.00±0.40 to 22.00±0.13 cfu/100ml, 8.50±0.15 to 36.50±0.20 cfu/100ml and 1.50±0.50 to 8.00±0.40 sfu/100ml respectively while the total bacterial counts of prepared herbs ranged from 1.00±0.01 to 2.00±0.00 cfu/100ml. There was a low microbial count in the herbs vended by those with more than 9 years herb vending experiences compared to others. Nine different bacteria species were isolated from vended herb samples with Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus 8(22.2%) being the most frequently occurred bacteria and followed by Enterobacter aerogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was 4(11.11%) occurrence.  The laboratory prepared herbs exhibited a better antibacterial activity against the tested diarrheagenic bacteria (S. dysenteriae (6.00±0.00 mm), E. coli (10.00±0.10 mm) and S. typhi (8.00±0.40 mm) compared to the vended herbs. The bacteria isolated from the vended herbs showed higher resistant against augmentin and amoxicillin. The haematological profile of the rats showed a significant increase in the white blood cell counts. There were also multiple foci of hepatic necrosis with cellular aggregation around the same foci in the liver and diffuse tubular degeneration and necrosis with the tubular epithelium completely eroded in the kidney of the rat. However, occurrence of these bacteria in vended herbs could predispose consumers to the risk of infections with pathogenic and antimicrobial resistant bacteria. Also, the herbs could be a source of toxicity showed in both histological and haematological parameters, which could pose a life-threatening disease to the consumer. Therefore, steps involve in the preparation of the herb must be standardize to prevent the microbial contamination.