Abstract:

Introduction: Antibiotics are among the most important clinical tools at the disposal of healthcare workers today. They are invaluable in the fight against infectious diseases. Recently however, a concerning trend has been observed where a number of infective agents are becoming increasingly resistant to antimicrobials. Natural products have an important role to play in mitigating this problem by offering alternative sources for antimicrobials. This study aimed to investigate the antimicrobial activity of garlic on clinical isolates of Enterococcus species in Mwanza as an effort in contributing to the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional laboratory-based study conducted at the CUHAS Microbiology Laboratory that used 35 clinical isolates of Enterococcus spp. Aqueous extracts of garlic were prepared and tested on the bacteria by the agar well diffusion technique and the zones of inhibition were measured and recorded in millimetres. The data was cleaned in Microsoft Excel 2010 and exported to STATA 15 for analysis.

Results: Clinical isolates of Enterococcus species used in this study were obtained from the archives of the CUHAS Microbiology Laboratory. Of the 35 isolates obtained, 33 were recovered by sub-culture and used as test bacteria. The isolates of Enterococcus spp tested were sensitive to garlic preparation with zone of inhibitions ranging from 26-30mm. The mean zone of inhibition was 28.3(±0.82)mm. The activity of garlic extracts on clinical isolates of Enterococcus species was bactericidal.

Conclusion: Crude aqueous preparations of garlic have antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus spp. These findings warrant further investigation into the activity of garlic as an antimicrobial with the aim of standardising its use in therapy.