Comparative studies on the effect of locally made black soap and conventional medicated soaps on isolated human skin microflora

The comparative study on the effect of locally made black soap and conventional medicated soaps Dettol, Dudu osun, Zee and Tura were investigated on isolated human skin microflora using disk diffusion method. The organisms isolated as skin microbiota were Staphylococcus aureus (30%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (26%), Corynebacterium spp (22%), Bacillus spp (16%) and Echerichia coli (6%). The results obtained revealed that the traditional black soap exhibited a high level of antimicrobial activities resulting in greater zones of inhibition (10.65) against other medicated soaps such as Dettol, Dudu Osun, Zee, and Tura that show the following zones of inhibition 7.58, 9.78, 10.57 and 9.29 respectively. Significant differences (p< 0.05) were also observed on the concentrations used. African black soap through this study can thus, be recommended for use since it has the potentials of treating skin diseases. Keywords: Black soap, Microflora, Human skin, medicated soap