Microbiological Assessment of Some Liquid Herbal Medications Sold in Awka Metropolis, Anambra State

The aim of this study is to microbiologically assess some liquid herbal medications sold in Awka, Anambra state, Nigeria. Sixty liquid herbal preparations (twenty NAFDAC registered and forty unregistered) were purchased from different vendors in Awka and analyzed for their microbiological quality by determining the levels of bacteria and fungi in them. Aliquots of the various serially diluted herbal products were cultured on various media plates; NA, SDA, MCA, EMB agar and XLD agar. Total bacterial count of 1.0 x 103 -2.1 x 106cfu/ml, total coliform count of 1 x 103 - 7.8 x 104cfu/ml; E.coli count of 1.0 x 102-2.0 x 102cfu/ml and total fungal count of 1.0 x 102 -1.4 x 105cfu/ml were obtained from NAFDAC registered ones while the unregistered ones had a total bacterial count of 3.6 x 103 - 1.11 x 107cfu/ml; total coliform count of 2.0 x 102 to 4.4 x 105cfu/ml; E. coli count of 1.0 x 102 - 7.0 x 104cfu/ml and a total fungal count of 2.0 x 102 to 2.0 x 106cfu/ml. The result showed that seventy percent of the registered drugs met the WHO standard for liquid herbal drugs while twenty-eight percent of the unregistered ones met the standard. There was a significant difference (P 0.05) between their total fungal count and E. coli count. Isolates gotten from both samples includes Escherichia coli (21.6%), Enterobacter asburiae (25%), Providencia rettgeri (13.3%), Acinetobacter baumannii (11.6%), Staphylococcus sp (16.6%), Bacillus sp (10%), Scedosporium aurantiacum (5%), Candida albicans (28.3%) and Candida krusei (13.3%). The antibiotic susceptibility test showed that E. coli was resistant to most of the antibacterial drugs used and Acinetobacter baumannii was the most susceptible while Penicillium marneffei was the most resistant to the antifungal drugs used and Phialophora parasiticum was the most susceptible. The research work showed that the microbial quality of these herbal drugs is low compared to standard of World Health Organization and could pose a great health risk to the society.