The increase in the consumption of natural drugs have made their use a Public Health problem due to the possibility of access to products without adequate conditions of use. The concern with the quality of the natural products is due to the potential fungal contamination and the risk of the presence of mycotoxins. Ninety-one samples of medicinal plants were evaluated for the fungal contamination and the mycotoxigenic potential of Aspergillus and Penicillium isolated from the samples. Results indicated that predominant mycoflora was distributed in 10 genera. From these, 89.9% of the isolates corresponded to genera Aspergillus and Penicillium, which are extremely important from the mycotoxicological standpoint. 21.97% of the Aspergillus and Penicillium isolates proved to have the ability for producing aflatoxins (42.9%), ochratoxin A (22.4%) and citrinine (34.7%). The presence of toxigenic moulds represents a potential risk of mycotoxin contamination and considering the worldwide increased use of herbal products as alternative medicines, it is necessary setting standards for toxigenic moulds in crude herbal drugs in order to reduce the risks for consumers' health.

INTRODUÇÃODesde a antiguidade, plantas têm sido utilizadas como medicamentos, na prevenção, no tratamento e na cura de distúrbios, disfunções ou doenças em homens e animais (Capasso, 1986;Garcia et al., 2003;Korolkovas, 1996;Rates, 2001). Os povos primitivos iniciaram a identificação de vegetais que melhor se adequavam ao uso medicinal, da época de colheita, das técnicas de extração e de modos de conservação (Garcia et al., 2003;Korolkovas, 1996).As descobertas de substâncias ativas em plantas medicinais impulsionaram uma revolução científica e tecnológica e os medicamentos vegetais foram sendo substituídos por fármacos sintéticos (Capasso, 1986;Korolkovas, 1996;Rates, 2001). Nas últimas décadas, porém, tem-se verificado tendência mundial de aumento na demanda por plantas e preparações de origem vegetal como recurso terapêutico, influenciado por fatores econômicos, sociais e culturais (Abu-Irmaileh e Afifi, 2003; Bent e Ko, 2004;Calixto, 2000;Capasso, 1986;Chan, 2003;De Smet, 2004;Elvin-Lewis, 2001;Giveon et al, 2004;Mahady, 2001).A maior industrialização e comercialização de medicamentos naturais tornaram seu uso um problema de Saú-de Pública. O aumento da demanda, associado à falta de fiscalização efetiva que garanta desde a exploração racional dos recursos naturais empregados como matéria-prima, até a dispensação do produto acabado, contribuem para a disponibilidade e acesso a produtos muitas vezes sem condições adequadas ao uso, sem garantia da qualidade, segurança e eficiência, fundamentais para a recuperação ou preservação da saúde do consumidor

The antimicrobial activity of Curcuma zedoaria (Christm) Roscoe extract against some oral microorganisms was compared with the antimicrobial activity of five commercial mouthrinses in order to evaluate the potential of the plant extract to be incorporated into formulas for improving or creating antiseptic activity. The in vitro antimicrobial efficacy of plant extracts and commercial products were evaluated against Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans using a linear regression method to evaluate the microbial reduction obtained in function of the exposure time, considering as effectiveness a 99.999% reduction in count of standardized microbial populations within 60 seconds. The results showed that the antimicrobial efficacy of Curcuma zedoaria (Christm) Roscoe extract was similar to that of commercial products, and its incorporation into a mouthrinse could be an alternative for improving the antimicrobial efficacy of the oral product.

From February 26, 2020 to March 11, 2021, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in 11,439,558 cases and 277,102 deaths in Brazil. Among them, 2,195,130 cases and 63,965 deaths occurred in Sao Paulo State, Southeast Brazil. The recent emergence and rise of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 is of concern because of their higher transmissibility and possible association with more severe disease. Cases of SARS-CoV-2 reinfections have been described since December 2020 in Brazil. This report describes two cases of COVID-19 reinfection, that occurred five and six months after the first infection, during the second wave of the pandemic in Sao Paulo State. Both patients presented mild symptoms in the two COVID-19 episodes and different lineages of SARS-CoV-2 were identified: B.1.1.33 and B.1.1.28 lineages in case 1 and B1.1.128 and P. 2 lineages in case 2.

Sterility testing as described in the pharmacopoeia compendia requires a 14-day incubation period to obtain an analytical result. Alternative methods that could be applied to evaluating product sterility are especially interesting due to the possibility of reducing this incubation period and thus the associated costs. The aims of this study were to evaluate the performance of the BacT/ALERTR 3D system in detecting microorganisms in large-volume parenteral solutions that were intentionally contaminated and to compare this system to pharmacopoeia sterility testing using the membrane filtration method. The results indicated that there were no significant differences between the methods regarding the ability to detect microbial contamination; however, detection with the BacT/ALERTR 3D system was faster compared to the pharmacopoeia method. Therefore, the BacT/ALERTR 3D system is a viable alternative for assessing the sterility of injectable products.