Antibacterial Activity of Soaps Indigenously Made in Gombe Metropolis, Nigeria Peters O. Oladosu 1,2* , Umar Y. A. 2 , Salawudeen A. 2 , Izebe K. 1 , Adamu M. T. 2 and Aboh M. 1 1 Microbiology and Biotechnology Department, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Idu, PMB 21, Garki, Abuja, Nigeria 2 Gombe State University, Department of Microbiology, Gombe, Nigeria *Author for correspondence JOURNAL OF NATURAL REMEDIES Abstract As part of Federal Government policy on Small Medium Enterprises in Nigeria, a lot of small scale businesses have sprung up including soap making industries using indigenous contents. The ability of indigenously manufactured soaps to remove germs and dirt is paramount. An in vitro evaluation of antibacterial activity of twelve randomly collected indigenously made soaps in Gombe metropolis, Nigeria was conducted using agar well diffusion method against strains of reference microbes viz; Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtilis and Klebsiella pneumonia being human skin bacteria, followed by time kill kinetic assay to determine the pharmaco-dynamics of active soaps against susceptible test organisms. The results obtained show that six of the soaps exhibited antibacterial activity with varying degree of zones of inhibition. S. aureus was the most susceptible amongst the organisms while E. coli and P. aeruginosa were the least susceptible microbes. The time kill kinetic assay shows that the bactericidal effect of the soaps is dose and contact time dependent as the susceptible organisms were eliminated after 8 h exposure. The antibacterial activities exhibited by these soaps suggest them as potential candidate in bio-prospecting for antibacterial. Keywords: Liquid Soaps, Microorganisms, Solid Soaps, Time Kill Kinetics, MIC DOI: 10.18311/jnr/2018/22434 1. Introduction Soaps are cleaning agents, which may be liquid, solid or semisolid. Soaps are used to remove dirt, including dust, microorganisms, stains and bad smells in order to maintain health, beauty and remove bad odour from the body or inanimate object, including clothes. Soap may be defned as a chemical compound resulting from the interaction of fatty acids, oils and salt 8, 9 . Cleansing agents have been used around us for a long time and among them soap, liquid hand-wash, detergent, etc., are noteworthy. Antibacterial soaps have been used to improve personal hygiene for generations. Te antibacterial soaps can clean and remove 65% to 85% bacteria from human skin 18 . Bacteria are very sundry and diverse and can be found in water, soil, sewage, on human body and are of great importance with reference to health 20 . In the year 1961, the U.S Public Health Service Recommendation mentioned that personnel should wash their hands with soap for one to two minutes before and afer client contact. Hand washing is very important and crucial when it is related to health care workers because of possible and probable cross contaminating of bacteria that may be pathogenic or opportunistic 21 . Hygiene of hands and prevention of infection through the use of antibacterial liquid hand-wash has been well recognized. Tere are many and a large number of chemical compounds that have the potential to inhibit the growth, contamination and metabolism of microorganisms or kill them. Te quantity and number of chemicals are vast and probably at least 10,000 and among them 1,000 chemicals are generally and commonly used in hospitals and homes 14 . Te important and signifcant groups of chemicals that help to destroy microorganisms are phenols, soaps, detergents, ammonia compounds,