Efficacy of methanolic extract of Terminalia brownii bark and leaves in treating experimentally infected rabbits

The antimicrobial activity of the methanolic extract of Terminalia brownii bark and leaves was tested in rabbits, experimentally infected with Pasteurella multocida strain B2. Two experiments were performed, in one using the bark and in the other using the leaves of the plant. In each experiment 30 rabbits were used and divided into 5 groups 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a, and 5a and 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b and 5b. Each group was injected subcutaneously with 0.2ml of an over night broth culture of Pasturalla Multocida strain B -2 -3 -6 2 (1x10 , 1x10 and 1x10 dilution). Groups 1a and 1b were kept as control. The methanolic extract of Terminalia brownii bark and leaves was prepared as a suspension in normal saline at a concentration of 50mg/ml and given orally by stomach tube at a dose rate of 100 mg/kg body weight to each infected rabbit two days before infection and then every day after infection for 12 days. Blood samples were taken before dosing and then every 3 days after doing for counting leuckocytes and finding the percentages of neutrophils and lymphocytes. The plant extracts were found to be effective when the rabbits were infected with low doses of Pasteurella multocida strain B2. In group 5a and 5b only half of the rabbits (50%) died after survival for a number of days, while the other half recovered at the end of therapy. Rabbits of the other infected groups died within 24 hours after infection.