Turkson Bernard K, Mensah Merlin L K, Sam George H, Mensah Abraham Y, Amponsah Isaac K, Ekuadzi Edmund, Komlaga Gustav, Achaab Emmanuel
Institute of Traditional and Alternative Medicine, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana.
Department of Herbal Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 May 15;2020:1014273. doi: 10.1155/2020/1014273. eCollection 2020.
The use of herbal products has increased and become more popularized globally; however, limited studies coupled with questions related to the quality and safety of these herbal products have been raised. Herbal products with hope of their nontoxicity may play a role of alternative to overcome the problems of multi-drug resistant pathogens. Medicinal plants used as raw materials for production may have quality and safety issues due to proximity to wastewater application of fungicides and pesticides, which may be directly deposited superficially or absorbed by the plant system. Therefore, possible contamination of some Ghanaian herbal products cannot be ignored, as it may severely affect human life in the process of treatment. . To evaluate the microbial load and the presence of toxic heavy metals in and , two polyherbal products used in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in Ghana. . Thermo Elemental M5 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) fitted with graphite furnace and an auto sampler was used to determine the heavy metal contents of the herbal products. The herbal samples were evaluated for the microbial load by using the appropriate culture media. . complied with the safety limits evaluated for all different microbial counts and contamination. The following heavy metals were present in : Fe, Ni, K, Zn, Hg, Cu, Mn, Cr, Cd, Pb, Fe, Cu, K, and Na. Ni was below detectable limit in . . may be assured of safety. The products contained heavy metals, but all were within acceptable limit established by the FAO/WHO. The levels of microbial contamination were below the maximum acceptable limit.
草药产品的使用在全球范围内有所增加且愈发普及；然而，相关研究有限，同时人们也提出了与这些草药产品质量和安全性有关的问题。有望无毒的草药产品可能会起到替代作用，以克服多重耐药病原体的问题。用作生产原料的药用植物可能存在质量和安全问题，因为靠近使用杀菌剂和杀虫剂的废水区域，这些物质可能直接沉积在植物表面或被植物系统吸收。因此，一些加纳草药产品可能存在的污染不容忽视，因为这可能在治疗过程中严重影响人类生命。为了评估用于治疗加纳非复杂性疟疾的两种复方草药产品中的微生物负荷和有毒重金属的存在情况。使用配备石墨炉和自动进样器的热电元素M5原子吸收光谱仪（AAS）来测定草药产品中的重金属含量。通过使用合适的培养基评估草药样品的微生物负荷。符合针对所有不同微生物计数和污染评估的安全限值。中存在以下重金属：铁、镍、钾、锌、汞、铜、锰、铬、镉、铅、铁、铜、钾和钠。镍在中低于检测限。可以确保的安全性。这些产品含有重金属，但均在粮农组织/世界卫生组织规定的可接受限值范围内。微生物污染水平低于最大可接受限值。
