Quality Assessment Of Aqueous Herbal/Medicinal Products Sold On The Ghanaian Market.

Abstract

The microbial quality of sixteen (16) decoctions sold on the Ghanaian market were investigated and the isolated microbes characterized to the species level. The results indicated that, almost all the decoctions were contaminated with aerobic bacteria and/or fungi. The highest microbial counts greater than 1.0x10⁹ cfu/ml were found in three of the samples with only one out of the sixteen samples having the lowest aerobic bacterial count of 1.0x10² cfu/ml. Fungal contaminations were found in thirteen (81.3%) of the samples with only three found to be free from fungal contamination. The highest fungal contamination of 3.2x10⁵ cfu/ml was found in only one sample. The characterization of the isolates revealed six bacterial genera and eight fungal genera with Bacillus subtilis (50.0%) and Cladosporium herbarum (34.5%) being the predominant bacterial and fungal isolates respectively. The analysis of the samples after three months storage showed that the microbial load of the decoctions were within the acceptable limits whilst the microbial isolates also showed a reduction for B. subtilis (23.8%) and C. herbarum (14.3%). The study revealed that most of the decoctions sold on the Ghanaian market are contaminated with both bacteria and fungi.

Key words: herbal medicine, aerobic plate count, spoilage microbes, microbial characterization