Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Microbial Load of Some Medicinal Plants Sold in Some Local Markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria

MacDonald Idu¹ , Solomon E Omonigho², Joseph O Erhabor¹, Harriet M Efijuemue¹

¹Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology; ²Department of Microbiology, University of Benin, PMB 1154, Benin City.

For correspondence:- MacDonald Idu Email: macdonaldidu@hotmail.com Tel:+2348050607009

Received: 30 March 2010 Accepted: 7 May 2010 Published: 24 June 2010

Citation: Idu M, Omonigho SE, Erhabor JO, Efijuemue HM. Microbial Load of Some Medicinal Plants Sold in Some Local Markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Trop J Pharm Res 2010; 9(3):251-256 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v9i3.6

© 2010 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the microbial load on 17 randomly selected plant samples from 60 ethnobotanically collected medicinal plants from five local markets in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Method: The pour plate method was used to cultivate serially diluted portions of the medicinal plant samples investigated. Enumeration of bacteria was carried out on nutrient agar (NA) while that of fungi was effected on Sabouraud agar (SA).

Results: The identified microbial isolates include 12 bacterial and 6 fungal genera. The mean heterotrophic bacteria counts of the different herbal samples ranged from 1.3 × 10⁵ cfu/g (Cnestis ferruginea) to 6.7 × 10⁶ cfu/g (Daniellia oliveri), while total fungal propagule counts ranged from 0.0 × 10¹ cfu/g (Terminalia superba, Cola gigantea, Rauwolfia vomitoria, Zingiber officinale and Argemone mexicana) to 7.1 × 10⁶ cfu/g (Nesogordonia papaverifera). The synopsis and frequency (prevalence rate) of microbial species isolation showed that Bacillus spp. (82.4 %) and Mucor spp. (47.1 %) had the highest prevalence rates among bacteria and fungi, respectively.

Conclusion: The findings from this study emphasized the need for constant quality assessment of herbal drugs on sale in order to ensure the production of therapeutic products suitable for human consumption.

Keywords: Microbial load; Medicinal plants; Local markets; Abeokuta; Nigeria