Abstract

Microorganisms being cosmopolitan are widely distributed in nature and can as well be found in swimming pools. These microorganisms contaminate swimming pools and other recreational water through indiscriminate defecation, contamination from rodents and birds etc. making these sources of water threat to human life. Concurrently, the resistant to conventional antibiotics has also increased the danger on people that are exposed to swimming pools, thus there is the need for alternative therapy. In view of this, study revealed the antibiogram of microorganisms isolated from swimming pools within Akure metropolis and the efficacy of Chromolena odorata as an alternative therapy to conventional antibiotics. The isolation, identification and antibiotic sensitivity of bacteria from selected swimming pools in Akure was carried out. Ethanol extract of the leaf of C. odorata was further tested on the isolates for comparative purpose with the commercial antibiotics using standard methods. The results of the experiment showed that the highest bacterial load of 7.10×10³ cfu/ml was obtained for Swan hotel, while the least bacterial load was recorded for Sun view hotel with a bacterial load of 2.83×10³ cfu/ml. Bacteria that were isolated and identified are Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antibiotic sensitivity of the isolates showed that ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin were able to exert inhibitory effect on all the isolates. Most of the antibiotics were however resisted by P. aeruginosa, except ofloxacin. The inhibitory evaluation of ethanol extract of C. odorata on the bacterial isolates showed that the extract had its highest inhibitory effect on Proteus vulgaris with a zone diameter of 7.9 mm. The extract was however resisted by P. aeruginosa. These results showed that these swimming pools house a variety of microorganisms, some of which are pathogenic and should therefore be disinfected on regular basis to prevent dissemination of these bacteria by swimmers. C. odorata is also is a good alternative antimicrobial agent especially to P. vulgaris.

Key words: Chromolena odorata, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, swimming pools.