The microbiological limits are considered to be one of the quality criteria that affect pharmaceutical. Herbal drug medicine is of some specialty since their raw material contains a high bioburden.
According to pharmacopoeia, Herbal drugs are mainly whole, fragmented or cut, plants, parts of plants, algae, fungi, lichen in an unprocessed state, usually in dried form but sometimes fresh.
Those medicines are of large uses in ethnomedicine, pharmaceutical and alimentary industry, so it is of high importance to check and screen their microbiological quality in order to estimate their safety and to determine the possible contamination sources. Four herbal medicines have been chosen (cassia anguastifolia to which boiled water is added befor use, rheum officinalis, Glycyrrhiza glabra and cinnamomum zeylanicumw). Some of these products have falvouring uses and therapeutic effects. The results showed a high bioburden exceeding the pharmacopoeial limits especially in Cassia and glycyrrhiza . these results reflect the absence of really control in markets and the exposure to eventual danger on user’s health.
Homs University Journal.
2016.