Prof. Dr. Geetha Viswanathan Ranjan Hebbar, Sanjeevani Arora
Bangalore University, SJCAS
36, Lalbhagh Road
Bangalore-29
To compare the bacterial microbial flora of nasal & oral cavities of Traffic policemen who are exposed to high rate of pollutants in Bangalore urban area with the microflora of non-exposed rural people and to develop biological control.
INTRODUCTION:
Automobiles have been and will be the greatest invention of man. Today, automobiles are not just a comfort, but have become a necessity.Air Pollutants are a subsequent output of vehicles and there is suspicion that they can cause respiratory syndromes and other clinical manifestations in man.
Recent studies have shown a strong association between the presence of vehicular outputs and increase in severity of asthma symptoms and other respiratory disorders in individuals who are regularly exposed to them.
Many pathogenic bacteria are present in the normal air micro flora. When people, especially policemen are constantly exposed to long durations of air pollutants, they tend to develop irritability and certain allergic reactions and also some disease conditions. The nasal and the oral cavities of the policemen who are constantly exposed to long durations of air pollutants from the automobile exhausts, act as a prime location for these organisms to inhabit, the infection from these pathogenic bacteria may cause severe abnormalities and clinical manifestations in the policemen.
MATERIALS
Normal saline , test tubes , cotton buds , lighter – STERILE for sample collection .
Media – Nutrient Agar , Blood Agar
Isolation purpose – NA slants , Chocolate agar .
Bio chemical test reagents
Gram staining reagents , microscopes
Prevention of contamination & sterility – masks were used during all work .
Tulsi , garlic , aloe vera , turmeric , neem extracts .
METHODS
Permission was taken from the Police Commissioner of Bangalore and the throat and the nasal samples were collected from a wide, diverse collection of police constables who were on duty at least for 6 hours and at the most polluted signals in Bangalore City . A total 70 samples were taken for both study and control group each .
Samples were inoculated on Nutrient agar and Blood agar for the identification of the bacterial microflora present. The pollution rates on the days of collection of samples showed Sulpur-di-oxide, nitric and nitrous oxide, SPM and RSPM to be 82.08, 83.08, 241.33 and 113.54 micrograms per millicube respectively.
The petriplates were inoculated and incubated for 24 hours, which resulted in the formation of various bacterial colonies. Following with pure culture slants , biochemical analysis and gram staining.
Tulisi , neem , aloe vera , garlic , turmeric extracts were obtained and mixed in the growth media , which was then inoculated with the pure cultures of pathogenic micro organisms obtained from the study group .
The microbial growth on the plates obtained from these plates were compared with the ones obtained without the herbal extracts .
Control group – Samples were taken from a pollution free environment and were inoculated same as the test group . The results obtained were tested using bio-chemical analysis , gram staining and pure culturing .
The results obtained from both the groups – test and control were compared and differentiated .
Results from growth on media with herbal extracts and ones without were also compared and recorded .
RESULTS :
Thus , the study group micro flora concurred after all the tests was found to be :
Haemophilus influenzae.
Neisseria species.
Staphylococcus aureus
Streptococcus pneumoniae & S . pyogenes .
Bacillus sp.
Nasal micro flora of control group – Staphylococcus epidermidis , Staphylococcus aureus , Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria sp. ,Neisseria meningitidis , Enterobacteriaceae (Escherichia coli) Proteus sp., Haemophilus influenzae, Corynebacteria
Oral micro flora of control group –
Staphylococcus epidermidis ,Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus mitis ,Streptococcus salivarius ,Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Streptococcus pyogenes ,Neisseria sp. ,Neisseria meningitidis, Veillonellae sp., Enterobacteriaceae (Escherichia coli) , Proteus sp. , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Haemophilus influenzae ,Lactobacillus sp. , Clostridium sp. , Corynebacteria .
ACTION OF HERBAL EXTRACTS ON TEST GROUP MICRO – FLORA
Organism
Haemophilus influenzae & Neisseria sp.
Staphylococcal & Streptococcal sp.
Bacillus sp.
Tulsi
–
–
–
Aloe vera
+
–
–
Garlic
+
–
–
Neem
–
–
–
Turmeric
–
–
+
“-” Inhibition , “+” No inhibition
DISCUSSION & INFERENCE
Over here , these micro organisms have grown rapidly on 24 hrs cultures showing the high amount of pathogen load in the test group .
Thus , what has been observed is these organisms have adapted the best to the high pollution level environment faced by our test group and have competitively been selected by nature to survive in that environment .
The high pollution levels has eliminated the occurrence of any other non-pathogens totally . What exists is a totally unique micro flora which has due to its antagonistic abilities totally eliminated the other bacterial growth . These micro organisms are highly pathogenic to humans and lead to many diseases which are also fatal .
These micro organisms have gotten a chance to become fit enough to survive in the harsh environment they have been exposed to over a long period of time. In that period these have successfully mutated and changed in a way to adapt to that environment. These have developed a good resistance level to the current commercially available anti biotics . Hence , the person harboring such microbial growth is at a constant risk of getting some infection which can’t be effectively cured from the currently available sources .
Thus , we conclude the harmful pollutants present in the environment have been the main contributors to the adaptability and survival abilities of pathogenic bacteria in the nasal & oral cavities .
The control micro flora has shown a varied type of bacterial growth be it a potential pathogen or non – pathogen . Each microbe has had an equal opportunity for growth with none showing any signs of being the highly fit one to survive better . In fact the number of non – pathogens exceeds the pathogens completely .
Pathogenic occurrence in control group is a rarity .