Effects of Simulated Preparations of Plants used in Nigerian Traditional Medicine on Candida spp. Associated with Vaginal Candidiasis

researchSome Nigerian medicinal plants are popular among traditional producers of phytotherapies in the treatment of sexually related infections. For this study we used modified agar disk, agar spot and agar well-diffusion methods, preparations of simulated crude aqueous and ethanolic extracts of 11 traditionally used medicinal plants for in vitro antimicrobial activities against seventy five strains of Candida species associated with Candida vaginitis and 37 vaginal Lactobacillus species. Candida pseudotropicalis (Castell.) Basgal were minimally inhibited by the plant extracts, while the rate of inhibition of other Candida strains by the ethanolic extracts of the plants were, Ageratum conyzoides L. (44.4 - 66.7%), Anthocleista djalonensis A. Chev. (57.1 - 66.7%), Senna alata (L.) Roxb. (44.4 - 75.0%) Ficus exasperata Vahl. (44.4 - 62.5%), Gliricidia sepium Kunth ex Steud. (64.3%-75.0%) Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King & H. Rob.(57.1%-62.5%) and Rauwolfia vomitoria Afzel. (62.5%). Apart from Aspilia africana (Pers.) C.D. Adams (24.3%) and Ageratum conyzoides L. (35.1%), very low in vitro inhibitory activities of between 5.4% and 16.2% were produced by the medicinal plants against the vaginal Lactobacillus species indicating their ethnophytotherapeutic safety

Characterization and recovery rates of food-indicator microorganisms from home-made oral rehydration solutions in Nigeria

From home-made oral rehydration solutions (ORS), the identified bacterial strains from a total of 1880 bacterial isolates (1010 from granulated sugar and 870 from table salt) using the conventional taxonomic tools were Bacillus cereus var. mycoides (0.57%), Bacillus subtilis (2.28%), Citrobacter sp. (1.07%), Clostridium perfringes (14.75%), Enterobacter aerogenes (6.13%), Escherichia coli (7.44%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (10.0%), Morganella morganii (0.78%), Proteus mirabilis (6.74%), P. vulgaris (1.68%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4.67%), Salmonella entrica serovar Typhi (3.89%), Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (0.99%), Shigella dysentariae (11.0%), Staphylococcus aureus (11.98%) and Vibrio cholerae (2.57%). The isolated fungal species from the table salt and granulated sugar samples were Aspergillus flavus , Aspergillus fumigatus , Aspergillus niger , Botryiodiplodia sp., Candida sp. and Scopulariopsis sp. Home-made ORS may serve as a means of transmitting gastroenteritis/diarrhoea and other infectious microbial agents in developing countries like Nigeri