South Asian Journal of Research in Microbiology

Aims: Currently there is a high demand on novel anti-microbial agents derived from natural sources due to low cost and less adverse effects. The present study was designed to screen the anti-microbial activity of different extracts of Oldenlandia auricularia against common pathogenic bacteria and fungi. 

Study Design: Experimental study.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Basic Sciences at Faculty of Allied Health Sciences and Research Laboratory at Faculty of Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Ratmalana, Sri Lanka, between July 2018 and November 2018.

Methodology: The aqueous, methanol, acetone and hexane extracts were prepared with the leaves, roots and stem of the plant Oldenlandia auricularia separately. The agar well diffusion method and broth macro dilution method were applied in order to screen the anti -microbial activity of each test extract against the Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Shigella dysenteriae, Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus.

Results: The zone of inhibition of most of the test extracts showed a significant (P =.05) difference, when compared with the negative control. The lowest MIC value for test extracts was 31.25 mg/ml, while the highest was 250 mg/ml. The acetone extract of the stem showed the lowest MIC value against E. coil. The highest anti-bacterial activity against S. enterica exerted by the root of the plant. All three tested parts of the plant were active against S. aureus and the maximum activity against C. albicans was shown by the leave extracts. The lowest MIC value against S. dysenteriae was 62.5 mg/ml, which indicated that the plants materials are less sensitive to the S. dysenteriae than the other tested pathogens. The results of the quantitative assay confirmed the results obtained from the qualitative assay.

Conclusion: The different parts of Oldenlandia auricularia plant displayed potential antimicrobial activity against different pathogens.

Aims: To compare the antimicrobial potential of branded and unbranded disinfectants on clinical bacterial isolates.

Study Design: The agar-well diffusion and micro broth dilution were adopted for the study. Ten disinfectants of which five were branded (industrial prepared) and five unbranded (indigenous prepared) were used against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Rivers State University. the study was for a period of two months (June-July, 2018).

Methodology: Faecal samples were collected from the University Medical centre and were analyzed in the Microbiology Laboratory for the isolation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus using standard microbiological method. The antimicrobial potential of both branded and unbranded disinfectants on the clinical isolates were evaluated using the micro dilution technique and the well in agar technique.

Results: The result in this study showed that both branded and unbranded disinfectants were effective on the E. coli and Staphylococcus isolates. However, the unbranded were only effective at high concentrations. E. coli had zone of inhibition ranging from 0 to 22 mm when tested with the unbranded disinfectant, while 0 to 17 mm was recorded for Staphylococcus aureus. The zones of inhibition of the branded disinfectant on E. coli ranged from 0 to 27 mm, while zone diameter of Staphylococcus aureus ranged from 0 to 25 mm. Among the unbranded disinfectants, Lysol produced the highest zone of inhibition While among the branded disinfectants, Savlon produced the highest zone of inhibition. The positive control was effective against all tested organisms with zones of inhibition ranging from 9-28 mm. On the other hand, as expected, the negative control (sterile distilled water) did not show any zone of inhibition.

Conclusion: The study showed that branded disinfectants were more effective on the clinical isolates than the unbranded disinfectants.

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of abattoir effluent on microbiological quality of the receiving Tagangu River and the susceptibility of the isolates to commonly-used antibiotics. The most probable number (MPN) as well as the Kirby-Bauer method of antibiotic susceptibility test were used and demonstrated the total heterotrophic bacteria as well as Escherichia coli O157:H7 numbers in a total of 30 water samples collected over a period of three months at three strategic points of the river. In accordance with CLSI guidelines, four out of eight bacteria (Enterobacter sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Citrobacter sp.) isolated, demonstrated multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) against at least three out of septrin, chloramphenicol, amoxicillin, augmentin, gentamicin, tarivid and streptomycin. All the isolates (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Citrobacter sp., Serratia marcescens and Aerobacter aerogenes) showed either high or intermediate susceptibility to sparfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and pefloxacin. The findings indicated that the river has been heavily polluted with the effluent discharges and did not meet any of the WHO guidelines for natural water sources fit for irrigation or other domestic purposes. As such, indiscriminate discharge of abattoir effluent could impact on the microbiological quality and promote increased incidence of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria in a receiving river.

Poor nutritional status show physical, mental and health wise consequences such as diarrhoea, stunting, wasting and underweight and often times lead to death, depending on their severity. This study evaluated the nutritional status of diarrhoeic children under five years in Kaduna State, Nigeria, using standard isolation methods, VTEC-ELISA tests, latex agglutination tests, Chi-square (SPSS Version 19) and World Health Organisation Antro (Version 3.2.2). Random sampling was used to select 350 children presenting with diarrhoea in six government hospitals within the three senatorial zones of Kaduna State. The nutritional status assessment showed 34.3, 24.3 and 13.1% of the children were stunted, wasted and underweight, respectively and Kaduna South senatorial zone also recorded the highest prevalence of undernutrition, indicating poor nutrition and poor health accumulated overtime. The study therefore recommends the implementation of programmes geared towards good hygiene, good nutrition and good health.

This study was carried out to investigate the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of bacterial pathogens isolated from human hair in barbing salon. Hair samples were collected from ten different barbing saloons in Benin City and immediately transported to the laboratory for microbiological analysis using pour plate isolation method. Isolated bacteria were identified based on their cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristic. Antibiotics sensitivity was carried out using commercially available antibiotic disks. Total bacteria counts ranged from 2.80x10⁴±0.8cfu/g to 6.13x10⁴±0.21 cfu/g. Bacterial isolated included Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Streptococcus viridians and Corynebacterium sp. The least occurring bacteria were Escherichia coli and Proteus vulgaris with percentage distribution of 40% each while the most widely distributed was Corynebacterium sp. (80%). All the bacterial isolates were observed to be multiple drug resistant. The most effective drugs were sparfloxacin, perfloxacin, gentamicin, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin. This study has shown that high densities of multiple drug resistant pathogenic bacteria are usually associated with human hair.