Commercially Available Herbal Preparations Used In The Treatment Of Typhoid Fever In The North West Region Of Cameroon: Determination Of The In Vitro Efficacy

The use of herbal preparations is gaining popularity, with an estimated 80% of the world’s population still depending on herbal medicine for the treatment of various diseases. However, data concerning their quality, safety and efficacy is not readily available.

Aim

The main aim of the study was to determine the in vitro efficacy of some commercially available herbal preparations used in the treatment of typhoid fever in Bamenda.

Materials and methods

Five herbal preparations indicated for the treatment of typhoid fever (coded P1 – P5) were bought
from various outlets of the herbal producers and serial dilutions made and screened for their activities against clinical isolates of Salmonella typhi and Salmonella paratyphi using the agar well diffusion and agar dilution methods. The inhibition zone diameters of the herbal preparations were measured with a transparent ruler and compared with that of some standard antibiotics (ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone).

Results

Two of the herbal preparations (P1 & P2) showed inhibition zone diameters against S.typhi while the rest (P3, P4 & P5) were in active. On S.paratyphi, P1 showed minimal activity while the rest of the herbal preparations (P2, P3, P4 and P5) were inactive. The difference between the value of the inhibition zone diameters of the herbal preparations and that of the standard antibiotics on both S. typhiand S. paratyphiwas statistically significant (p< 0.05).

Conclusion

It was found out that most of the herbal preparations showed no activity against the test bacterial isolates contrary to their label bogus claims