Microbiological Quality of Herbal Medicine Sold in Lagos Metropolis

ABSTRACT

Herbal medicines are traditional drugs made from herbs or plants. They are commonly referred to as phytomedicines, plants medicines, green medicines, traditional medicines, plant drugs and forest health products among many others. These are also referred to as finished labelled medicinal products that contains as active ingredients or underground parts of plants or other plants materials or combination thereof whether in the crude state or as plant preparations. In the south-western Nigeria they are known as “Agbo” and are used to cure various ailments such as typhoid fever, malaria, body pains, stomach aches, sugar control and less frequent infections such as Gonorrhoea and staphylococcus, as well as sexually transmitted diseases, samples of these herbal medicine where collected from eight(8) different locations in Lagos. The microbial quality of these medicine is dependent on the origin of the plants, herbal medicinal products are subject to bioaccumulation of heavy metals, contamination by microorganisms in soil, air and water which maybe potentially pathogenic microorganisms of humans. Microorganisms isolated from this products includes;Bacillus spp, Klebsiella spp, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas spp, Coliform bacteria,Aspergillus spp, Penicillium spp, Mucor spp, Enterobacter spp and Citrobacter spp, with colony counts above 1.0×107 cfu/mL which is the permissible limit by world health organization. Microbial contamination of medicinal herbs can be attributed to environmental factors such as, storage conditions for raw and processed medicinal plant material, hygiene practice of the producer in Nigeria, there has been significant increase for the use of herbal medicinal items for the treatment and prevention of diseases, on the streets in urban areas due to availability and accessibility either as a standalone or a combination of modern medications. Food safety is a public health concern and as such it is very crucial that these herbal medicine meets and maintain food quality standard to ensure humans safety from food related hazards