Abstract:
Objective: The present work is a microbiological quality control study on some herbal preparations marketed in south eastern Nigeria. Materials and methods: Ten solid and ten liquid herbal preparations collected from different herbalists in south eastern Nigeria were assayed for their bacterial and fungal load using the spread plate technique. All the microbial contaminant were characterised at least to generalevel.Results:The herbal preparations were heavily contaminated with bacteria and fungi at levels farabove the officially stipulated limit for oral pharmaceutical preparations. A total of 45 bacterial (includingE. coli, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas, Proteus,Streptococcus,and Staphylococcus ) and 20 fungal (includingCandida,Microsporium and Curvularia ) strains were isolated from the preparations. Conclusions: Dueto the high degree of microbial contamination of these herbal medicines, and the pathogenic potentialsof many of the isolates,it is very necessary that herbalists should be enlightened about Good ManufacturingPractice (GMP). Also regular microbiological monitoring of herbal preparations marketed in Nigeria isadvocated
