**3.4 Medicinal plants**

According to [4], Africa has so many medicinal plants that have being used over the years. They stated that there are about 3000 plants species used for treating various types of diseases in Southern Africa while there are about 10,000 medicinal plants species in Northern Africa. Natural medicinal products originating from


### **Table 1.**

*Some antibiotics alternative of plant origin used in Sub-Saharan Africa.*

herbs, spices and their products have being used as antibiotics alternatives to improving the wellbeing of poultry during production. The antimicrobial activates of phytochemicals vary from plant to plant and from region to region. Tannin act by deprivation of iron, binding with hydrogen or through interactions non-specifically with proteins of the bacteria. Some of the herbs used as antibiotics alternatives are garlic (*Allium sativum*), *Aloe vera*, Thyme (*Thymus vulgaris*), Tumeric (*Caurcuma longa*), Ginger (*Zingiber officinale*) among others. The positive effects of these herbs are due to the presence of essential oils, fatty acids, minerals, fiber, vitamin, protein and carbohydrates. Apart from the digestive and antioxidant properties of herbs, they exert the beneficial influence through antimicrobial, immunomodulating and antiparasitic effects.

Buena [10] has reported that guava fruit extract showed *in vitro* has antimicrobial activity against bacteria such as *Escherichia coli*, *Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis,* and *Shigella dysenteria.* The leaf extract is against *Staphylococcus aureus.* It was shown to antibacterial in another study and in addition to *Staphylococcus aureus* was also useful against *Streptococcus spp*. The leaves are rich in tannin, and have antiseptic properties. **Table 1** shows some medicinal plants used as antibiotics alternative for poultry in Sub-Saharan Africa.
