EVALUATION OF SORGHUM “OGI” FOR ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY AND THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL IN EXPERIMENTAL SHIGELLOSIS IN WISTAR ALBINO RATS

Abstract

The antibacterial activity and therapeutic potential of “ogi” made from Sorghum bicolor subjected to continuous natural fermentation at 30+2oC for 72h on experimental shigellosis in wistar albino rats was evaluated in this study using standard assays. The test organism used in this study was Shigella dysenteriae. Prior to these, the microbial types and loads of the “ogi” used were determined using standard microbiological assays. Moreover, the effect of fermentation duration on the antibacterial activity of the produced “ogi” on the test bacteria was also determined. Furthermore, the infective dose of the organism on wistar albino rats was also determined. This dose was used to infect another set of rats to induce shigellosis in them. After infection sets in, the rats were divided into 5 groups of 4 rats each and the different groups were treated as follows: Group 1 was treated with 1ml “ogi” slurry once daily, group 2 with 2ml of “ogi” slurry once daily, group 3 with 1ml of the “ogi” liquor once daily, group 4 with 2ml of the liquor daily. Group 5 on the other hand was not treated. The average microbial load of the fermented “ogi” ranged between 2.2×104 and 3.9×104 cfu/ml and between 3.1×104 and 4.8×104 cfu/ml for the slurry and liquor of the “ogi” respectively. The bacteria isolated from the “ogi” liquor and slurry included: Lactobacillus plantarum, L. acidophilus and Micrococcus lactis while the following fungi were isolated: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Geotrichum albidum, Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus fumigatus and A. niger. The titratable acidity increased from 12 to 32 while the pH decreased from 7.2 to 5.8 during fermentation. For the in vivo assay, the infective dose of Shigella dysenteriae on wistar albino rats was found to be 8.0 x 103 cfu/ml. The liquor of Sorghum “ogi” subjected to 72h fermentation exerted the highest growth inhibitory effect on the test organism. This liquor also caused a superior recovery of the rats infected with the test organism. The histopathological examination of the large intestine, liver and spleen of the animals infected with S. dysenteriae prior treatment showed ulceration, hemorrhage and pulps. However after treatment with the liquor, the histopathological examination of these selected organs showed no ulceration and hemorrhage. This work has been able to show that the “ogi” used had significant growth inhibitory activity (P≤0.05) on the test organism and that the liquor from sorghum “ogi” fermented for 72 hours has promising therapeutic effects in albino rats infected with S. dysenteriae leading to the reduction in the load of the organism in their faeces, causing the healing of the ulcerative wound and the stoppage of haemorrhage of the large intestine of the infected rats.