ABSTRACT

The role of plants in the promotion of health care system in Nigeria in gradually increasing.  This research tries to document information on the plants and the methods of botanical preparations used in South-eastern Nigeria for the treatment of children’s ailments and also the pharmacological efficacy of some of the mostly mentioned plants. Structured questionnaires were administered to the herbal practitioners, nursing mothers and the adult dwellers to collect data on the names of plants used to treat the conditions, methods of preparation, duration of treatment, adverse effects (if any) and the method of administration of the extracted plant materials. A total of 135 plants belonging to 55 families were identified for the management of children’s health in the area. Common pediatric ailments which were said to be treated with herbal remedies by the respondents included malaria, fever, pneumonia, stomach ache, diarrhea, dysentery, measles, chicken pox/small pox, convulsion, jaundice, pile, ringworm, scabies, eczema, stubborn cough, scurvy, headaches, catarrh, wounds, boils, insect bites, food poison, cholera, and umbilical cord complications. Twenty-one (21) plants that were mostly mentioned were subjected to antimicrobial analysis against two human pathogens; Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus using in vitro methods of the disc diffusion and micro-broth dilution methods. Four plants viz; Mangifera indica, Gongronema latifolium, Chromolena odorata and Cnestis ferruginea were screened for anti-diarrheal activities using standard methods which included castor oil-induced diarrhea, gastrointestinal motility test and castor oil-induced enteropooling tests. In the antibacterial screening, Uvarea chamae (leaf), Nauclea latifolia (leaf), Azadirachta indica (leaf) exhibited highest activity against E. coli, followed by Emilia sonchifolia (leaf), Musa sapientum (leaf), Annona muricata (leaf), Alstonia bonnie (leaf), and Nauclea latifolia (root).While Musa sapientum (leaf), Nauclea latifolia (leaf), Emilia sonchifolia (leaf), Azadirachta indica (leaf), Ocimuim gratisimum (leaf), and Uvarea chamea (Root) showed highest activity against Staphylococcus aureus, followed by Uvarea chamea (leaf), Alstonia bonnei (leaf) and Bryophyllium pinnatum on disc difussion assay. In MIC assay, Azadirachta indica (bark), exhibited the highest antibacterial effect against E. coli with MIC value of 62.5µg/ml when compared with the standard drug erithromycin (5µg/ml), 62.5 µg/ml, U. chamea (leaf and root), and Mangifera indica (bark) showed activity against E. coli by having maximum lower concentrations of 125 µg/ml each and the leaf extract of N. latifolia and Sida acuta showed MIC value of 250 µg/ml, the rest of the extracts showed MIC values of 500 µg/ml - 100 0µg/ml above. In diarrhea assay, all the four plant extracts exhibited dose dependent effects on all the models with highest activity recorded in C. odrata which gave 66.1% protection from castor oil-induced diarrhea and 80.1% reduction in intra-luminal fluid accumulation. C. ferruginea gave 70.4% protection on gastrointestinal motility test, while M. indica and G. latifolium gave 61.1% and 61.5% which represented performance above 50%, indicating that all the four tested anti-diarrheal extracts hold potentials as anti-diarrheal agents.