Bacterial Quality and Heavy Metal Content of Selected Herbal Remedies Sold in Some Motor Parks in Owerri, Imo State.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the quality and possible toxic effects of some herbal remedies sold in some motor parks in Owerri, Imo State. The samples of the ready-to-use herbal remedies were obtained randomly from sale outlets using sterile containers and labelled A (used for malaria), B (used for typhoid), C (used for Candidasis) and D (used for sex enhancement) before transporting to the laboratory for analysis using standard procedures. Media used that included Salmonella Shigella Agar (SSA), Nutrient Agar (NA) and MacConkey Agar were prepared according to manufacture’s specification. Bacterial isolates were characterized based on cultural (colonial), microscopic and biochemical methods with reference to standard manuals. The results obtained revealed the presence of Bacillus sp, Corynebacterium sp, Micrococcus sp, and Enterococcus sp in the samples. Bacillus sp was present in all the samples. The bacterial counts of the different samples ranged from 1.0 x106 cfu/ml to 1.2 x108 cfu/ml. The samples were further evaluated to assess the presence of heavy metals such as Zinc (Zn) Cadmium (Cd), Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Chromium (Cr) and Nickel (Ni). The results obtained revealed that the concentration of all six potentially toxic heavy metals analyzed were found to be q below the permissible limits for all the herbal remedies. However, the presence of potentially pathogenic microorganisms in the samples make them hazardous from the infectious standpoint, which is obviously a major risk for consumers.