A Survey of the Antibacterial Activity of Three Plants Used in the Congolese Herbal Medicine Practiced by the Healers in the City of Lubumbashi: Recent Advancement

Since 2002, the folk medicine promotion and integration in the Congolese health’s system has become
a reality because it has been proven to be a viable alternative for the majority of the population daily
confronted to health problems due to the lack of access to primary care services. Moreover, the
cohabitation between the modern and folk medicine has been successfully implemented in many
countries throughout the world and consequently, those countries are looked at a best examples of the
integration of the folk medicine in their health’s system. As a result, a great number of the illnesses
that torment people living in rural and urban areas are both cured by the modern physicians and
traditional healers using different therapeutic approaches and schemes. The City of Lubumbashi in the
DR Congo is also concerned this phenomenon and what precedes is raising the issue of ascertaining
that the therapeutic implemented by traditional healers is valid. Such a preoccupation is considered by
the present survey which is interested in the evaluation of the antibacterial activity of three medicinal
plants used in herbal medicine by the healers in the city of Lubumbashi. It is based on the
ethnobotanical knowledge and the testing of sensitivity of the pathogen microbes towards the plant
extracts of Terminalia mollis, Diospyros batocana and Antidesma venosum. Results from the testing of
the plants extracts revealed that Proteus mirabilis is the microbe more sensitive to the extracts of T.
mollis whereas Salmonellatyphii showed greater sensitivity to extracts of D. batocana and A. venosum.
Concerning Klebsiella pneumoniae, no sensitivity was observed towards extracts of A. venosum. The
extracts from T. mollis and D. batocana, tested against the reference bacteria, revealed to be
bacteriostatic which behaviour justifies their use as sources of drugs against infectious illnesses by the
healers in the City of Lubumbashi.