Antimicrobial Efficacy of Selected Natural Products on Microorganisms Isolated from Throat of Patients with Throat Infection

Introduction: Natural products have been used in traditional medicines for treatment of infections due to the antimicrobial activity they exhibit. This study therefore evaluates the efficacy of honey, ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) extracts on microorganisms isolated from throat of patients with throat infection. Methods: The antibacterial and antifungal efficacy of honey, ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) extracts was investigated against microorganisms isolated from throats of infected patients at the ENT Department of State Specialist Hospital, Akure, using agar disc diffusion and agar well diffusion technique respectively. Results: Bacteria isolated from patients with throat infection were Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Proteus mirabilis while the fungal isolates were Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis. The antibacterial and antifungal assay results showed that all bacterial isolates were inhibited by honey, garlic and ginger extract. Honey, ginger and garlic showed highest inhibition against P. mirabilis (19.01±0.31 mm), P. aeruginosa (20.20±0.42 mm) and S. aureus (23.00±0.01 mm) respectively also, antifungal assay results showed that all the extracts had antifungal effect on the fungal isolates. The combination of equal concentrations of honey plus garlic showed the highest inhibitory effect on all the test bacteria followed by honey plus ginger then garlic plus ginger while the combination of honey plus garlic had the highest inhibitory effect on Candida albicans (21.63±0.02 mm) but garlic plus ginger combination showed the highest inhibitory effect on Candida tropicalis (21.68±0.04 mm). Conclusion: The result of this study therefore showed that the bacteria and fungi isolated from throat of patients with throats infection demonstrated sensitivity towards the tested samples of honey, garlic and ginger and hence, can serve as effective therapeutic agents in the treatment of throat infections.