Innovation: The development of a polyherbal oral formulation containing crude extracts of Fiscus sur, Angrographia paniculata , Acalypha fimbriata and Heliotropium indicum has not been documented in literature. Furthermore, the development of the polyherbal extracts as reconstitutable anti-tubercular powder suspension

Sector/Industry Application: HEALTH (PUBLIC HEALTH)

Description: Tuberculosis (TB), presents as a chronic disease condition, principally of the respiratory system has been declared by WHO as a global burden and a public health issue. Conventional TB chemotherapy is challenged with poor treatment outcomes which explains the necessity and increasing quest for the development of better alternatives. Natural plants are receiving focus as prospective alternatives to the synthetics because of their wide spectrum of bioactive constituents (alkaloids, tannins, terpenes, saponins, and flavonoids), relative abundance and comparative safety. Nigeria has high plant biodiversity, some of which have been suggested with anti-tubercular potentials following their folkloric use in treating chesty and stubborn coughs. These plants can be explored for development as anti-tubercular formulations thereby improve local content utilization and inclusion of pharmaceuticals. Nigeria has a high burden of this disease condition and patient population depend on donated drugs whose availability could be challenged by supply logistics and administrative bottlenecks. Thus the development of herbal TB formulations in Nigeria can address the challenges of national self-insufficiency and medicine insecurity that was brought to bear during the Covid-19 pandemic. This research sought to develop an adjuvant TB phytoformulations. It determined the preformulation characteristics (physiochemical, pharmacognostic, microbial, antioxidant ) hence anti-mycobacterial potentials of Fiscus sur (Moraceae), Angrographia paniculata (Acanthaceae), Acalypha fimbriata (Euphorbiaceae), Heliotropium indicum (Boraginaceae) for prospective development as a polyherbal anti-tubercular reconstitutable powder suspension. The ethanolic extracts of these plants and formulated reconstitutable powder suspension shall be screened for their anti-mycobacterial potentials on the clinical isolates of sensitive and resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in accordance with standard protocols (Biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) Lab situated in the Center for Tuberculosis Research (CTBR) unit ,Nigeria Institute of Medical Research -NIMR, Lagos,Nigeria). Optimum TB chemotherapy entails ratio combinations of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The optimized ratio combinations of the active plants shall be used to develop polyherbal anti-tubercular formulations that are cost effective against drug sensitive and multi-drug resistant strains.

Problem: Conventional TB chemotherapy is currently challenged with issues of multiple drug dosing, prolonged treatment periods, adverse drug effects, poor patient compliance, low adherence and emergence of multidrug resistant strains which necessitate the development of effective,safer and patient acceptable adjuvant and/or alternative therapeutics