Microbiological profiling and the demonstration of in vitro anti-bacterial traits of the major oral herbal medicines used in Dhaka Metropolis

Abstract

Present study attempted to assess the level of microbiological contamination in oral herbal medicines, frequently used for medications, through conventional cultural and biochemical tests along with the antibiogram of the isolates. Moreover, the anti-bacterial potential of the herbal medicines was also aimed to be checked by the agar well diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assay. Out of 10 categories of liquid oral herbal medicine samples (n = 50) studied, all were found to be contaminated with bacteria (103-105 cfu/mL), specifically with Staphylococcus spp. in 8 samples; while 2 samples harbored Klebsiella spp. Fungal presence was observed only in one sample. Study of antibiogram revealed Klebsiella spp. to be strongly resistant against penicillin G and erythromycin, whereas S. aureus possessed 80% sensitivity. The in vitro anti-bacterial activity was observed in 7 samples. Of them, one sample was found to exhibit the activity against almost all the test bacteria and another was found effective against 5 out of 8 test bacteria. Five samples showed the activity within a minor range while 3 samples were devoid of such trait. Samples 2 and 4 were found to stall the bacterial growth below 10 mg/mL of concentration in MIC test. Overall, the prevalence of specific pathogens was not so significant in the samples studied as well as only one drug-resistant isolate was identified. Besides, the anti-bacterial trait of 5 samples indicated that most of herbal medicines might be considered effective for medication.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-739) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Microbiological analysis and detection of anti-bacterial activity of Centella asiatica and Aloe vera samples collected from different areas of Dhaka city, Bangladesh

“…The traditional system of medicine in particular herbal medicine is in great demand in developed as well as in developing countries because of their lesser side effect, wide biological activities and lesser cost than synthetic drugs (9,35).…”

“…For preparing the sample suspension for microbiological examinations, 10g of each sample was weighed and homogenized in 90 ml normal saline to prepare 100ml sample suspension. Then, it was subjected to serial dilution (made up to 10 -5 ) for microbiological analysis (9,(26)(27)(28)(29). Total viable bacterial count (TVBC), total bacilli count and total fungal count.…”

“…Researchers have found that, bacterial resistance to tetracycline; penicillin and erythromycin are encoded by over 100 different genetic mechanisms, a number of which are readily transferable to other bacteria via conjugal elements, transposons, plasmids etc (7). Therefore, inauguration of herbal medication could be an alternate to treat diseases caused by multidrug resistant bacteria (8,9). Some other reasons for the practice of herbal medicines include the minor side effects with small or no toxicity, cheap in price, better ease of access etc.…”

“…Furthermore, original microflora in plants, presence of microorganisms within processing plant, dust, using contaminated water and animal human a excreta, before and after harvest procedure including processing, storage and distribution may be the origins of microbial contamination (20,24). In addition, the collection and handling of medicinal plants does not usually done in sanitary conditions and unhygienic cultivation conditions can increase pollution, influence the maintenance period and destruct the aspect and the potential advantage of medicinal plants (9,25).…”

Anti-Bacterial Activity of Natural Plants on Fish Pathogens Isolated from Different Ponds of Dhaka City

“…The anti-bacterial activity of the herb samples was performed by using agar well diffusion method [26][27][28][29][30] . At first, the suspensions (with standard turbidity compared to that of the McFarland standard of 0.5) of each of the test bacteria; i.e., Pseudomonas spp., Aeromonas spp., Vibrio spp., were spread evenly over the MHA using cotton swab, which in turn resulted in the uniform lawns.…”