Assessment of Bacterial Contamination of Dried Herbs and Spices Collected from Street Markets in Dhaka

Abstract

Crude plant parts used as a source of medicine is an ancient practice and important for health care system worldwide. In Bangladesh, a large number of population depends on the traditional medicine using crude drugs. In traditional systems, street sellers collect powered plant parts or dried plant parts from whole sale markets locally or from various parts of Bangladesh. Favorable environmental condition for microbial growth and handling with unhygienic conditions may result in microbial contamination. The present study was performed to assess the total bacterial count and presence of coliform bacteria from 33 powdered plant part samples collected from street markets, Dhaka. Bacterial count was performed using pour plate technique in nutrient agar according to microbiological standard USP method. Bacterial growth was done by streak plate technique on MacConkey and EMB agar plates. Results showed that, 13 out of 33 samples exceeded permissible limit of bacterial count (>10 5 cfu/gm).However, 20 samples showed bacterial count ranging from 3.1×10 2 to 2×10 3 cfu/gm. About 48.5%samples contained Escherichia coli indicating the presence of coliform bacteria and 21.2% samples contained other enteric bacteria (unidentified) which was confirmed by bacterial growth on MacConkey and EMB agar plates. Therefore, from this study, it may be concluded that crude herbal products contain a high level of bacteria that may be associated with health risk.

The Effect of Cold Plasma Pretreatment on Water-Suspended Herbs Measured in the Content of Bioactive Compounds, Antioxidant Activity, Volatile Compounds and Microbial Count of Final Extracts

“…Most of the tested samples exceeded the upper permissible limit of bacterial count (>10 5 cfu∙g −1 ). The performed study confirms literature reports that herbs available on the market are highly contaminated by microorganisms [ 33 , 34 ]. Cold plasma pre-treatment showed a germicidal property for most extracts.…”

Microbiological Quality and Safety of Some Dried Spices Obtained from Markets, Spice Shops and Homes

“…Almost 50% of the herbs did not exceed the aerobic mesophilic level of 10 4 cfu/g (4 log cfu/g) in a study conducted on 99 samples of aromatic herbs collected from retail shops across Algarve, Southern Portugal [63]. Nur and coauthors [64] found that 13 out of 33 samples (dried herb and spice) from Dhaka, Bangladesh exceeded the permissible limit of bacterial count (>10 5 cfu/g/5 log cfu/g). However, 20 samples showed bacterial count ranging between 3.1 × 10 2 and 2 × 10 3 cfu/g (2.49-3.30 log cfu/g) [64].…”

“…Nur and coauthors [64] found that 13 out of 33 samples (dried herb and spice) from Dhaka, Bangladesh exceeded the permissible limit of bacterial count (>10 5 cfu/g/5 log cfu/g). However, 20 samples showed bacterial count ranging between 3.1 × 10 2 and 2 × 10 3 cfu/g (2.49-3.30 log cfu/g) [64]. The aerobic mesophilic microorganisms did not exceed 10 5 cfu/g in most of 46 samples of the aromatic herbs from Algarve, Portugal [65].…”

“…Nur and coauthors [64] found that about 48.5% of dried herb and spice samples from Dhaka, Bangladesh contained E. coli, therefore indicating the presence of coliform bacteria. Likewise, 21.2% of the samples contained other enteric bacteria (unidentified) [64].…”

“…Nur and coauthors [64] found that about 48.5% of dried herb and spice samples from Dhaka, Bangladesh contained E. coli, therefore indicating the presence of coliform bacteria. Likewise, 21.2% of the samples contained other enteric bacteria (unidentified) [64]. Coliform bacteria were detected in 13 (35.1%) out of 37 HACCP certificated spices and 27 (32.9%) out of 82 non-certificated HACCP spices in a study examining 119 commercial spices from Suncheon, South Korea [71].…”