Nwachukwu O Ndubuisi¹*, Ezeagwula Divine¹, Onyeagba A Reginald¹, Unegbu N Valentine² and Owanta I Julie¹

¹Department of Microbiology, Abia State University, Abia State, Nigeria
²Department of Biology, Spiritan University, Abia State, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Nwachukwu O Ndubuisi, Department of Microbiology, Abia State University, Abia State, Nigeria.

Received: December 16, 2021; Published: January 13, 2022

Abstract

Commonly consumed nonprescription oral dosage forms (tables) dispensed from Patent Medicine Stores are subject to unrestricted handling and potential contamination by microorganisms. We determined the bacteriological quality of tablets sold from patent medicine stores in Umuahia, Nigeria. A total of 113 items of 24 registered tablet brands were purchased. They were investigated for total bacterial count and presence of specified microorganisms using standard microbiological methods. Out of 113 items, 84(74.3%) tablets were free of microbial contamination while 14(12.4%) had bacterial counts <10² cfu/ml. Only 2(1.8%) tablets exceeded the specified bacterial limit of >2x10³ cfu/ml. None of the blister-packed tablets had bacterial growth on them. All the tablets dispensed (“counted”) from large containers were contaminated by aerobic bacteria. The commonly encountered bacterial contaminants were Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus species. Folic acid and Magnesium trisilicate were the most contaminated tablets. The tablets in blister packs were of excellent bacteriological quality.

Keywords: Bacteriological Quality; Patent Medicine Stores; Commonly Dispensed; Non Prescription Tablets

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Citation

Citation: Nwachukwu O Ndubuisi., et al. “Bacteriological Quality of Commonly Dispensed Non-prescription Drugs (Tablets) Sold in Patent Medicine Stores”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 6.2 (2022): 74-77.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Nwachukwu O Ndubuisi., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.