ISOLATION

Herbal mixtures are widely consumed in many developing countries due to their perceived therapeutic benefits, affordability, and accessibility. However, poor preparation and storage practices increase the risk of microbial contamination. This study aims to isolate and identify the microorganisms present in selected herbal mixtures sold at Uselu, New Benin and Ring Road Market in Benin City, Edo state. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on herbal preparations collected from the three major markets. Microbiological assessment was performed to determine bacterial load and isolate species. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was carried out using standard disc diffusion techniques, and statistical analyses were applied to evaluate differences across dosage forms and locations. The overall mean bacterial load was 7.92 × 10⁷ CFU/ml. Powdered forms exhibited the highest mean load (1.33 × 10⁸ CFU/ml), followed by liquid forms (6.53 × 10⁷ CFU/ml), while paste formulations showed no detectable growth. Variations across dosage forms (p = 0.331) and market locations (p > 0.05) were not statistically significant. Bacillus subtilis was the most prevalent isolate (8 occurrences), followed by Klebsiella spp. (3), Bacillus cereus (2), and Staphylococcus aureus (2), with Pseudomonas aeruginosa identified once. Antibiotic susceptibility revealed complete sensitivity to Azithromycin and Levofloxacin (100%) and high sensitivity to Pefloxacin (76.5%). Moderate sensitivity was recorded for Gentamycin, Rifampicin, and Erythromycin (52.9%), while reduced activity was observed for Zidovudine (29.4%) and
Ampicillin (41.2%). Amoxicillin showed the lowest effectiveness, with resistance in 82.4% of isolates, confirmed by its minimal inhibition zone (4.41 ± 2.38 mm). The strongest inhibition zones were produced by Levofloxacin (19.06 ± 1.32 mm) and Azithromycin (16.94 ± 1.68 mm). In Conclusion, Locally marketed herbal mixtures in Benin City were found to harbor diverse bacterial contaminants, predominantly Bacillus subtilis. Although no significant differences were observed across dosage forms or market locations, the presence of pathogenic bacteria and high resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as Amoxicillin emphasizes it’s potential health risks.

This study focused on isolating and identifying fungal species associated with agricultural farmland soil in UNIBEN. Soil samples were collected in sterile plastic ziplock bags from selected agricultural farmlands in Benin City, Edo State, and were subsequently transported to the laboratory for fungal identification. The identification of fungal isolates was conducted using cultural and morphological methods. The results indicated that total fungal counts of soil samples collected from the selected farmlands ranged from 5.70±0.42 to 12.50±1.56. The highest fungal counts were observed in Farm 2 (12.50±1.56), followed by Farm 5 (8.70±0.71), while Farm 4 exhibited the lowest count at 5.70±0.42. The identified fungal isolates included Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma sp., Penicillium sp., Rhizopus arrhizus, and Mucor mucedo. The percentages of occurrence for these fungal isolates varied from 7.14% to 28.57%. Aspergillus niger had the highest occurrence rate at 28.57%, followed by Trichoderma sp. and Penicillium sp., each at 21.43%, while Rhizopus arrhizus had the lowest occurrence at 7.14%. This study emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamics of fungal populations within these agricultural soils to inform management strategies aimed at enhancing soil health. By monitoring these microbial communities, farmers at these sites can adopt more effective agronomic practices that capitalize on beneficial fungi while minimizing the impact of pathogenic species.

This research work evaluated the geospatial data need for the design of a good road profile using Global navigation satellite system as a tool that will serve the purpose of safety, capacity and aesthetics considerations Before getting the geospatial for the geometric design of the study area, thorough survey of the site was carried out using the dumping level to obtain the coordinate of the point along the study area, The GNSS was used to obtain the geospatial data of the study area, The design consideration includes: the composition of the traffic, the speed and the management of accessible road. Based on the use, the offset from both sides of the road is determined from the centerline point where the road will be placed. A road offset of 2.85 meters results from the carriageway width of 6.5 meters for the Police station road. A 1.75m-wide shoulder was made available to use as a parking lane, walkway, and covered drain. Ample care was made in the plot to prevent any road segments from crossing in the university of Aerial photography or remote sensing data obtained from space satellites that depict a graphical perspective of the land region are other significant design aids employed for this project. Geospatial data are designed to uniquely specify the positions of features on the earth's surface Geospatial data must be acquired in order to plan, construction, and manage the mad infrastructure, which is vital to humans use. These data come from a variety of sources, BNH including aerial photos, topographic maps, satellite images, and hand-drawn maps. For the collection, processing, and display of geographic data, optimal techniques are applied, which result in significant time and financial savings.

This present study focused on isolation and identification of bacteria isolated from urine sample of undergraduate students at the University of Benin, Benin City. A total of fifteen (15) urine samples were collected and transported to the laboratory for bacteriological analysis. The total bacteria count ranged from 6.2 × 10 5 CFU/ml - 8.0 × 10
5 CFU/ml. Bacterial species isolated includes Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus and Proteus mirabilis. E. coli was the most predominant isolate accounting for about (55%) followed by S. aureus (25%), S. saprohyticus (15%) and P. mirabilis (5%). The antibiotic susceptibility to antibacterial agent revealed that of S. aureus all the isolates were (100%) resistant to Zinnacef and Cephalexin while they were (100%) sensitive to ciprofloxacin. S. saprohyticus 15(100%) were resistant to cephalexin and (100%) sensitive to ciprofloxacin. E. coli and P. mirabilis susceptibility test revealed that 5(5%) of P. mirabilis showed resistance to Cephalexin and Septrin and was sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Amoxicillin and Augmentin. however, 55(100%) of E. coli were resistant to cephalexin, moderate sensitivity to septrin and (100%) sensitivity to
ciprofloxacin. The isolates were also tested for their ability to produce gelatinize. All bacterial isolates produced gelatinize. The ability of the bacterial isolates obtained to produce gelatinize is of a serious medical importance as this may have contributed to the multi-drug resistance of the isolates and as such, further research should be carried out to discover new antibiotics effective against these organisms.

Sodium alginate is a commonly used encapsulation matrix for variety of materials such as plant cells, food products, oil and flavor. This compound is biodegradable, biocompatible and non-toxic. Also, it is cheap, available, has chelating ability and forms stable reversible gels. However, plant extracts have challenges of poor utilization, poor stability, chemical degradation, low bioavailbility and high molecular weight. Therefore, this study was aimed at isolation, characterization and use of sodium alginate nanoparticles to encapsulate acetogenin compound isolated from Annona muricata leaf. Sodium alginate nanoparticles loaded with acetogenin compound were prepared and characterized using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscope (FTIR). TEM revealed a spherical and irregular nature of sodium alginate nanoparticles loaded with acetogenin compound with particle size of 280nm. The encapsulation efficiency was 89% and this result shows that encapsulation in nanosized matrics with different concentrations of sodium alginate nanoparticles produced higher encapsulation efficiencies which therefore, enhances solubility, biovailability of acetogenin compound.

Sales outlets that have poor sanitary conditions can present health risks to consumers. The direct consumption of drinks in their container can expose consumers to serious foodborne diseases, thus increasing the risk of toxi-infection and its transmission constituting a serious public health problem. This present study is aimed at evaluating the possible contamination and determination of the prevalence of Bacteria found on canned drinks and their antimicrobial susceptibility in some selected distributing and retail points in Benin-city, Edo State. The microbiological analysis was performed from the collection of beverage cans sold in distributing and retail points Benin city. The cans were stored in sterile plastic bags and introduced into individual thermal bags for temperature maintenance. Samples were taken from the surface of beverage cans with a sterile swab and transferred to vials containing 10mL of BHI broth. After 24 hours, the same swabs were used for seeding on selective culture media. The results showed that out of the hundred (100) samples examined, only 34 (34%) was positive for bacterial contamination, showing a general prevalence of 34%. Of the 39 sample collected from retailers, 15.38% (6/39) showed contamination while 54.09% (28/61) of samples collected from distributors showed contamination. The highest bacterial count was 7.0 × 105 while the lowest bacterial count was found to be 1.9 × 102.Escherichia coli has the most prevalence with 12 (35.3%) different isolates from the 34 positive samples followed by Klebsiella spp. and Enterococcus faecalis with 8 (23.5%) different isolates each. Four (11.8%) different isolates of Staphylococcus aureus were gotten while just 2 (5.9%) isolates of Streptococcus spp. were observed in this study. Most of the isolates were sensitive to the three different antibiotics used in this study. Five isolates were resistant to Piperacillin, while one isolate was resistant to both Gentamycin and Cefoxitin. The implications of antibiotic resistance on healthcare systems are enormous as resistance leads to the limitation of treatment options. Considering a significant p-value of ≤0.05, statistical analysis shows significant relationship between refrigeration and prevalence of bacterial contamination (p=0.015). Moreso, this research shows a significant relationship between purchase site and prevalence of bacterial contamination. More contamination was observed among canned drinks gotten from retailers when compared to distributors. This was found to be statistically significant (p=0.048). However, no statistically significant relationship existed between location from which canned drinks were gotten and the prevalence of bacterial contamination (p-value= 0.068).