Abstract:
The herbal concoctions, incision recipes termed “Madarikan” (Protective – counter medicine) of different constituents were assessed for antimicrobial and toxicological properties. Antagonistic activity was also carried out on the isolated organisms against some selected pathogens; Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Bacillus subtilis. In vitro assay was carried out on eighteen microorganisms comprising twelve bacteria and six fungi, while the in vivo assay was carried out using laboratory albino rats. Comparison of the antagonistic activity of the isolated bacteria from the herbal concoctions against the clinical isolates showed that the test isolates, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus and Klebsiella showed a great antagonistic activity against all the test bacterium. All of the organisms had the antagonistic properties which were exhibited against each other but with Bacillus sp having the highest antagonistic activity against all the clinical isolates and the clinical isolate also showed a unique antagonistic effect on its counterpart isolated from the concoction. However, for fungi, the percentage of inhibition of the fungal growth showed that, at 72 hours, Candida sp, and Staphylococcus aureus antagonised Aspergillus flavus; Streptococcus sp; Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis antagonised Aspergillus saprophyticus; Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis antagonised Penicillium notatum while Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus sp. inhibited the growth of Aspergillus fumigates up to the 96th hour, whereas only Bacillus subtilis inhibited Aspergillus niger at 24 hours only. Haematological analysis of the animals’ blood showed that the recipes had a little effect on the blood, in that, while the control group in the ones infected with Escherichia coli had an average PCV of 35.3% for 24-M, 34.0% for 16-M, and 35.3% for 7-M; those treated with recipes had 37.7%, 35.3% and 35.7% respectively as well as the control group infected with Staphylococcus aureus. The result vividly showed that
the incision recipes varied in their potency with respect to the number of marks on which the recipes are applied, clearly showing that the 24-M incision recipes had the highest potency while the 7-M incision recipes had the lowest. Therefore, 24-M incision was most effective and should be recommended for use by humans
