Assessing the Effect of Selected Body Creams on the Skin Microflora

ABSTRACT The present study was carried out to assess the effect of selected body creams on isolated skin microflora. Four selected body cream products namely; Visita, Nivea, Vaseline and Carotene were used for the study. Skin swabs from three volunteered individuals were aseptically collected, cultured for the isolation of skin microflora. The research was carried out under strict adherence to standard microbiological procedures. The result showed the bacterial colony counts ranging from 170 CFU/cm2 to 54 CFU/cm2 while the fungal colony counts ranged from 8 CFU/cm2 to 6 CFU/cm2. Four bacterial species were identified as Staphylococcus sp., Staphylococcus sp. (coagulase negative), Micrococcus sp., and Corynebacterium sp. as well as three fungal species; Epicoccum sp., Aspergillus sp. and Cryptococcus sp. were isolated from the skin swab samples. Staphylococcus sp had the highest frequency of 88 and percentage distribution of 27.8% followed by Staphylococcus sp. (coagulase negative) 82(25.9%), Corynebacterium sp. 75(23.7%) while Micrococcus sp. had least distribution of 71(22.5%). The frequency and percentage distribution of the fungal isolates which revealed the highest frequency of 13 and percentage distribution of 61.9% for Aspergillus sp. followed by Epicoccum sp. 5(23.8%) and Cryptococcus sp. 3(14.3%). The effect of the selected body creams on the isolated skin microflora showed that Visita cream exhibited strong effect on all the skin microflora including Staphylococcus sp., Staphylococcus sp. (coagulase negative), Micrococcus sp. and Corynebacterium sp. at higher concentration than at lower concentration when compared to the control test. Carotene cream also exhibited effect on Staphylococcus sp., Micrococcus sp. and Corynebacterium sp. at higher concentration but mild effect on Staphylococcus sp. (coagulase negative). No significant effect was observed for Nivea and Vaseline creams on the skin microflora.