Abstract

COMPARATIVE IN VIVO INHIBITORY EFFECT OF GARCINIA KOLA SEED PARTITIONED FRACTIONS ON THE GASTROINTESTINAL MICROFLORA IN MALE ALBINO RATS

Umoh Romanus A.*, Ambe Daniel A., Johnny Imoh I., Elijah Akwaowoh A., Udoh Anwanabasi E. and Umoh Omodot T.

Abstract

Introduction: Garcinia kola (Heckel), from the family Gluciaceae, is one of the numerous medicinal plants of high significance in traditional medicine practice and nearly all parts of the tree have economic importance. The seeds are used in the treatment of cough, diarrhoea, menstrual cramp, gonorrhoea, bronchitis, gastroenteritis, hepatitis and is also used as aphrodisiac. Aim: The Comparative in vivo inhibitory effect of Garcinia kola seed partitioned fractions on the gastrointestinal microflora in male albino rats, was studied using the aqueous and chloroform fractions from methanol crude extract with the goal of establishing their antimicrobial effects comparatively using viable plate counts. Methods: The seeds of Garcinia kola were purchased, peeled, washed, shredded into tiny pieces, sun-dried, pulverized, defatted using petroleum ether, the marc was air-dried, followed by cold maceration with methanol for 72 hours, filtered and evaporated to dryness to obtained the extract. The methanol crude extract was successively partitioned to obtain the aqueous and chloroform fractions. They were evaporated to dryness and stored in sample bottles in a refrigerator at 4oC. After acclimatization of the experimental rats, an in vivo microbiological assay was carried out on eighteen male albino rats, divided into six groups of three rats per group, three groups for aqueous fraction and chloroform fraction respectively, the seventh group was used as untreated controls and they were separately kept, food and water were made available to them ad libitum. The baseline (initial) levels of microorganisms in their faeces (500mg) were determined using viable plate counts method of the bacterial colonies (cfu/mg). The plates were incubated at 37°C for 16-18 hours and the colonies that took up stains (pink) were counted and recorded in the colonies forming unit per milligram (cfu/mg). These animals were then orally administered with the extract fractions of 350mg/kg/day, 1,500mg/kg/day and 2,000mg/kg/day doses according to their groups for 7 days. The faecal sample of each rat was taken every two days for antimicrobial analysis as in day zero to determine the level of reduction of the bacterial load of the Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of the rats. Results: The results showed that aqueous fraction had more significant reduction in the colony-forming unit per milligram of the faeces in the bacterial colony counts than the chloroform fraction. The reductions were dose dependence. Differences between means were compared using students t-test statistical analysis. These differences between means were significant at 95% confidence limit (P<0.05). Conclusion: From the statistical analysis the reductions in the bacterial load of the GIT of the rats were due to the administered extract fractions.

Keywords: Acclimatization, Ad libitum, Antimicrobial, Colony, Garcinia kola, Inhibitory, Microflora, Microorganism.