adulterations of herbal drugs

3.3.5  Bacteria and Molds

Crude drugs are particularly vulnerable to contamination by the spores of bacteria and mold that are ubiquitous in air. Under 

proper storage conditions, their presence does not cause any problem, but it is generally accepted that the viable count per-

missible for herbal medicinal products should be the same as that for foodstuff. The impact of microscopic organisms is not 

generally exceptionally noticeable except for some chromogenic types of microbes, for example, Bacillus immense, which 

creates red pigments in bland materials (

Evans, 2009

). Nonetheless, bacterial development is normally accompanied by the 

development of molds, whose proximity is rapidly apparent by the trademark smell and by the mass of sticking particles 

entangled in the mycelial hyphae. Dusty cotton wool is shaped by bacterial attack, causing the trichomes to break into short 

lengths and rendering it extremely weak. Keeping in mind that the end goal is to recognize a specific shape or microscopic 

organism that is multiplying in a stored item, it is important to culture it in an appropriate medium with a view to acquire 

fruiting bodies for examination. In any case, if the drug to be inspected is invaded quickly, at that point it might be possible 

to make microscopic specimen directly from the sample. Generally, the molds that develop in improperly stored drugs 

incorporate the genera Mucor (e.g., dimorphic shape, Mucor circinelloides), Rhizopus (e.g., dark shape, R. nigricans), 

Penicillium (e.g., blue form, P. glaucum), Aspergillus (e.g., green form, A. repens), and Saccharomyces.