Comparative Studies on Effectiveness of Branded and Unbranded Disinfectants on E. coli and Staphylococcus Species

Aims: To compare the antimicrobial potential of branded and unbranded disinfectants on clinical bacterial isolates.

Study Design: The agar-well diffusion and micro broth dilution were adopted for the study. Ten disinfectants of which five were branded (industrial prepared) and five unbranded (indigenous prepared) were used against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Rivers State University. the study was for a period of two months (June-July, 2018).

Methodology: Faecal samples were collected from the University Medical centre and were analyzed in the Microbiology Laboratory for the isolation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus using standard microbiological method. The antimicrobial potential of both branded and unbranded disinfectants on the clinical isolates were evaluated using the micro dilution technique and the well in agar technique.

Results: The result in this study showed that both branded and unbranded disinfectants were effective on the E. coli and Staphylococcus isolates. However, the unbranded were only effective at high concentrations. E. coli had zone of inhibition ranging from 0 to 22 mm when tested with the unbranded disinfectant, while 0 to 17 mm was recorded for Staphylococcus aureus. The zones of inhibition of the branded disinfectant on E. coli ranged from 0 to 27 mm, while zone diameter of Staphylococcus aureus ranged from 0 to 25 mm. Among the unbranded disinfectants, Lysol produced the highest zone of inhibition While among the branded disinfectants, Savlon produced the highest zone of inhibition. The positive control was effective against all tested organisms with zones of inhibition ranging from 9-28 mm. On the other hand, as expected, the negative control (sterile distilled water) did not show any zone of inhibition.

Conclusion: The study showed that branded disinfectants were more effective on the clinical isolates than the unbranded disinfectants.