Bacteriological Evaluation of Non-Regulated Herbal Remedies Sold in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

An essential mandate of food and drug regulatory agencies is to ensure that products offered for public consumption are free from such level of microbial contamination as to endanger the health of consumers. A number of herbal remedies offered to the public were found not to be regulated as evidenced by the absence of regulation numbers on the labels. Thus, this study sought to determine the level of bacterial contamination of packaged, labeled, non-regulated herbal remedies sold in Port Harcourt. Seventy two samples of twelve different locally produced, liquid, packaged, labeled, orally administered, non-regulated herbal remedies were purchased randomly from retail outlets within Port Harcourt metropolis. They were assessed for total heterotrophic bacterial counts (THBC) and total coliform counts (TCC). One hundred and sixty four bacterial strains obtained were characterized and identified by standard techniques employing Gram staining and biochemical methods. The mean THBC was 3.77±0.77 Log10cfu/ml ranging from 3.20±0.99 to 4.37±0.91Log10cfu/ml. The mean TCC was 3.17±1.02 Log10cfu/ml; with the range between 2.32±1.81 and 3.98±0.47 Log10cfu/ml. All 164 bacterial isolates belong to eleven genera, and 22 species namely Staphylococcus aureus (59;36.0%), Enterobacter cloacae (13; 7.9%), Enterobacter pyrinus (10; 6.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (10; 6.1%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10; 6.1%), Bacillus subtilis, (8; 4.9%) Enterobacter aerogenes (7;4.3%), Serratia rubidaea (7;4.3%), Proteus (Cosenza) myxofaciens (6;3.7%), Staphylococcus epidimidis (6;3.7%) Serratia marcescens (4;2.4%) Bacillus cereus (3;1.8%), Citrobacter rodentium (3;1.8%), Enterobacter hormaechei, (3;1.8%) Klebsiella oxytoca, (3;1.8%) Proteus mirabilis (3;1.8%). Hafnia alvei (2;1.2%), Salmonella pullorum (2;1.2%), Streptococcus pyogenes (2;1.2%) Enterobacter cancerogenus (1; 0.6%) Salmonella enterica (1; 0.6%), Salmonella typhi (1; 0.6%). Given that these products were processed, packaged, labeled and offered for sale to the public without regulatory numbers, it is suggested that regulatory agencies should ensure that all such products are brought within the ambits of the regulatory laws.