Evaluation of antibacterial activity of Phytexponent preparation on selected priority Bacterial strains at higher concentrations

Abstract

H. influenzae, A. baumanii and S. enteritidis are pathogenic micro-organisms known to cause disease in human beings. They have developed resistant strains over the years thus made it difficult to treat these bacterial infections. They are part of the list of pathogens published by WHO that urgently need new antibiotics. Thus, this study aims to find an alternative to the conventional antibiotics in which the bacterial strains have developed resistance. Antibiotic resistance brings about treatment failure, increased cost of treatment due to prolonged hospitalization and use of expensive antibiotics. The conventional antibiotics are also known for their side effects which lead to non-compliance in most patients thus increasing the rate of development of resistance. The evaluation of antibacterial activity of plant sources has increased in order to come up with alternatives for the treatment of bacterial infection. PhytExponent is a poly-herbal preparation with five herbs that have shown to have significant in vitro antibacterial activity. The disc diffusion assay technique is an example of agar diffusion method used for susceptibility testing and assay for potency. It is the most used technique in most microbiology laboratories to test for susceptible micro-organism to certain antibacterial agents. Using the disc diffusion technique, PhytExponent demonstrated increased antibacterial activity against the test micro-organisms as its concentration increased.