MULTI-DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA ISOLATES RECOVERED FROM HERBAL MEDICINAL PREPARATIONS IN A SOUTHERN NIGERIAN SETTING OLEGHE PEACE OMOIKHUDU1, ODIMEGWU DAMIAN CHUKWU2, UDOFIA EMA1 and ESIMONE

Objectives: The microbial qualities of some herbal medicinal products circulated within southern Nigeria were evaluated. Methods: sampling, isolation and characterization of contaminating microorganisms was carried out using established protocols. Agarose gel electrophoresis was employed for the characterization of possible R-plasmids. Results: Out of the 18 herbal preparations 13 (72.2%) showed contamination with either bacteria or fungal microorganisms or both. Bacillus anthracis was isolated from five (38.5%) of the contaminated preparations (liquid preparation), Staphylococcus aureus from one (7.70%) solid preparation, Corynebacterium diphtheriae from three (23.08%) preparations (2 liquid, 1 solid), and Candida albicans from 11 (84.62%) preparations (6 liquid, 5 solid). The antimicrobial susceptibility-resistance pattern of the contaminating microorganisms revealed that three out of the five B. anthracis strains isolated demonstrated resistance to four out of 12 antimicrobial agents (Ofloxacin, Ciprofloxacin, Pefloxacin, Augmentin, Ampiclox, Erythromycin, Cephalexin, Clindamycin, Ceftriaxone, Gentamicin, Co-trimoxazole, Amoxycillin) employed in the study. S. aureus displayed over 50% resistance coverage while the resistance pattern recorded by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae isolates appeared to be inconsistent. The various isolates of C. diphtheriae recorded 40, 0, and 50 percents respectively. Submerged agarose gel electrophoresis employed for the molecular characterization for possible R-plasmids revealed that one plasmid each was isolated from each of five resistant bacteria strains L4a (Corynebacterium diphtheriae), L4b (Bacillus anthracis), L10a (Corynebacterium diphtheriae), L10b (Staphylococcus aureus), S6 (Bacillus anthracis). It also shows that the largest plasmid size (23.05 kbp) was recorded for the C. diphtheriae strain L4a while the C. diphtheriae strain L10a gave the smallest plasmid size (2.03 kbp). Conclusions: The results of the study showed that herbal medicinal preparations are a potential source for the dissemination of multi-drug resistant microorganisms.