Assessment of in Vitro Antimicrobial Effect of Bacterial and Fungal Probiotics Sold in Abuja

Probiotics are live microorganism that are considered good or beneficial for human and animal body’s functioning and health. The objective of the study is to sample commonly sold probiotics in Abuja drug stores, to evaluate in vitro antimicrobial activity and to test for combined probiotics and antibiotics effects. Three (3) types of commercially available probiotics such as Tamabiotic, Biofor and yeast tablet were collected randomly from three (3) different pharmacies in Abuja. The media used was nutrient agar. It was prepared following the manufacturers instruction and it was sterilized by autoclaving at 121oC for 15 minutes. The two common pathogens Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus representing both gram negative (-ve) and gram positive (+ve) bacteria were used for this study. The results of this study demonstrate the potential of bacterial and fungal probiotics as antimicrobial agents against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus pathogens. The In vitro assays revealed that the probiotics exhibited significant inhibitory effects on the growth of bacterial and fungal strains. The zone of inhibition for Tamabiotic on Plate A containing the E. coli was recorded as 0.3 and on Plate B Staph. aerues was recorded as 0.2 the zone of inhibition for Bioflor on both E. coli and Staph aerues was 0.1 on Yeast Tablet E. coli was recorded as 0.1 and Staph aerues 0.3.