Microbial Contamination of Herbal Mixtures (Local Concoctions) Used in the Treatment of Typhoid Fever, Malaria Fever, and Dysentery in Makurdi Metropolis. Akande, T., Agbulu C.O., and Oche, M. Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria Email: atitilayo@ymail.com

ABSTRACT

Microbiological analysis of Herbal mixtures (local concoctions) used in the treatment of typhoid fever, malaria fever and dysentery was carried out to investigate and evaluate the microbial qualities. The study was carried out on five sales outlets namely; North Bank, Wurukum, High Level, Modern Market and Wadata. The viable plate count rangesbbetween 1.0-9.4 X 10-5cfu/ml for bacteria and 1.0 – 8.0 x 10-5cfu/ml for fungi. The highest viable count of bacteria were from typhoid fever samples collected from modern market which was about 9.4 x 10-5cfu/ml and it shows a higher level of contamination with Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species. Malaria fever samples collected from Modern Market
also had the highest viable count of fungi which was about 8.0×10-5 and it also shows a high level of contamination with Alternaria species and Rhizoid species. The quality of most of the herbal medicine was unaccepted as Escherichia coli, Candida species, Salmonella species, Bacillus species, Alternaria were isolated. Most of the herbal medicine can cause harm to consumers and can be source of enteropathogenic organisms that cause anthrax, typhoid fever, hepatitis which can lead to death. There is need to institute not only sanitary measures, but also infrastructural development since most of these herbal medicine were contaminated due to failed storage, packing, handling of raw materials.