Microbial contaminants of selected sudanese medicinal plants and their compliance with quality control standards

Abstract EN

The increasing demand for herbal medicines inevitably led to maintaining the quality and purity of the herbal raw materials and finished products.

The standardization problem related to herbal drugs arises from the complex composition of drugs that are used in the form of whole plant, plant parts or extract obtained from them.

To ensure reproducible quality of a herbal remedy, proper control of the starting material is an utmost essential, especially since medicinal plant materials normally carry a great number of bacteria and moulds.

The present work is an attempt to investigate four specific microbial contaminants of some selected 14 medicinal plants used traditionally in Sudan and with high potential value in the local market, and to compare those limits of contamination with the international ones.

The method of determination of microorganisms which are considered in this study as contaminants was adopted from "Quality control methods for medicinal plant materials (WHO, 1998) and 'British Pharmacopoeia' (1998).

Preparation of pretreatments of the materials to be examined for Escherichia coli, Salmonella, typhimuriwn, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus had been followed.

Isolation, identification and quantitative evaluation of the microbial contaminants were also done.

The 14 plant materials passed the quality assurance test of E.

coli, S.

typhimuriurn, Ps.

aeruginosa and S.

aureus and complied with the listed international limits, except specimen No.

8, which showed a confirmed presence of Salmonella typhimurium.

All 14 specimens (except No.

8) showed insignificant bacterial counts.

Only specimen No.

1 showed significant growth of fungi, which has been identified as Aspergillus terms.

All other specimens showed insignificant fungal growth count.