Background: Being natural, herbal products are often perceived as safe but studies have shown that they may not be free of pathogenic microorganisms. The extent of microbial contaminants of traditional oral powdered herbal formulations (TOPHFs) in Ogbomoso, Nigeria, is not known, while the frequency of users of these drugs in the study area has not been reported.Aim: To evaluate the microbial contaminants of TOPHFs marketed in Ogbomoso Nigeria, identify the risk factors associated with their production and handling, and determine the frequency of users of the drugs.Setting: Ogbomoso, Nigeria.Methods: Fifteen manufacturers of TOPHFs listed the health conditions that are indicated for their drugs, while 125 residents provided information on their preference for those drugs. The questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency counts and percentages). Packaging and/or handling and level of personal and environmental hygiene of the manufacturers were examined and analysed for significance of their influence on contamination of drugs using chi-square test. Using pour plate method and following standard procedures, 12 samples of TOPHFs were analysed to quantify their bacterial and fungal contaminants.Results: The TOPHFs were indicated for 17 different types of health conditions with 60% of the sampled population being prolonged and regular users. The personal and environmental hygiene levels of the manufacturers fell short of acceptable standard. Ten out of the 12 samples analysed were heavily contaminated (i.e. above WHO limits) with yeasts/moulds and faecal coliforms such as Enterobacteria, 9 with Streptococcus and 6 with pathogenic bacterial species such as Staphylococcus and Salmonella. There was a significant association of TOPHFs contamination with manufacturers’ level of formal education (p = 0.001), solid waste management (p = 0.015) and methods of updating knowledge and expertise (p = 0.004), thus making these 3 the risk factors associated with contamination of the drugs.Conclusion: Use of TOPHFs is popular among the residents of Ogbomoso, but there is a high rate of contamination of these drugs with some potentially pathogenic organisms because of insufficient quality control in their production and handling.

Background: The organoleptic evaluation of herbal drugs is as old as science, but the authentication of herbs on the basis of their fluorescence characteristics is difficult and sometimes impracticable because humans are limited by their sense of colour recognition.Aim: This article undertakes a computer-aided examination of some powdered herbal materials with a view to characterising them calourimetrically, thus providing a reliable organoleptic clue for their authentication, against possible misidentification.Setting: Research was conducted in Ogbomoso, Nigeria.Methods: Seventeen herbal materials (i.e. stem bark, root/root bark, vines, fruit calyx, leaf sheath and seed) used for two traditional powdered drugs were collected and pulverised into powders. Their colours were digitised by scanning the surface of the powders in petri dishes using a CamScanner installed on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet 10.1 Model 7500, and were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed by uploading the images into the online Cool Hypertext Preprocessor (Cool PHP) software tool, setting the number of colours at five, thus giving consideration to only five dominant colour shades in each image, all expressed as hexadecimal codes. The codes were uploaded into Chir.ag/art, another online tool, to read off the colour names. The relative mean percentage, frequency and relative colour intensity (RCI) of each colour shade were calculated, and the colour with the highest RCI was taken as the first or typical colour of each herb.Results: Nine of the 62 colours observed, namely Lucky, Sandrift, Cannon Pink, Potters Clay, Mandalay, Ferra, Domino, Russet and Roti, were highly restricted in distribution, each being the first or typical colour in only one species of the herbs (i.e. Enantia chlorantha, Garcinia kola, Hibiscus sabdariffa, Khaya senegalensis, Sarcocephalus latifolius, Sorghum bicolor, Theobroma cacao, Uvaria chamae and Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides respectively). These colours were therefore substantially diagnostic of those herbs. Another nine colours among the most frequently observed colours and the number of species that had them were Pesto (9), Shadow (8), Driftwood (8), Barley Corn (5), Domino (4), Roman Coffee (4), Cape Palliser (4), Himalaya (4) and Husk (4); these were less diagnostic of the herbs in question. Based on the distribution of these colours, a diagnostic PHP colour chart was constructed for the authentication of the powdered medicinal herbs.Conclusion: Powders of the 17 medicinal herbs analysed have been characterised colourimetrically with each species being unambiguously diagnosed. The study has therefore circumvented the subjectivity of the human sense of colour recognition in medicinal herb authentication.

Confirmation of identity, along with determination of the quality and purity of herbal drug is an important step towards ensuring its safety and efficacy. This study therefore sought to document the botanical constituents and drug indications of traditional oral liquid herbal formulations (TOLHFs) manufactured in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. It also examined the conservation status of the medicinal plants so used alongside the cultivation efforts being made by the drug manufacturers in order to provide information on whether continual exploitation of the plants for TOLHFs is sustainable. Through a questionnaire, 14 traditional herbal medical practitioners (THMPs)provided information on the recipes of their products, the sources of their raw material herbs, and types of health conditions treated or managed with the drugs. Sustainability potential of the drugs was quantified as relative percentage of the three choices of sources of raw material herbs available to the manufacturers in conjunction with the conservation status of the plant species as recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Fifty-seven medicinal plant species (in 34 angiosperm families) were used to formulate 71 herbal recipes that are indicated for treating 14 different health conditions.

Maloff-HB is a documented traditional oral powdered herbal drug in Ogbomoso, Nigeria whose botanical constituents, ascorbic acid and mineral elements composition have been quantified but there is inadequate information on the pharmacognostic properties of the nine herbal materials for its formulation. This study therefore sought to elucidate the bark and wood anatomy of eight of the nine herbs used in the formulation, and identify the diagnostic markers for their authentication. The conventional anatomical techniques of transverse sectioning (TS) and tissue maceration (TIM) were used to draw out 21 characteristics from the root barks of the eight woody species studied. In addition, 41 features of the wood in the roots of three of the species were drawn using TS, transverse longitudinal sectioning (TLS), radial longitudinal sectioning (RLS) and TIM. Following staining, mounting and microscopic examinations, the observed qualitative and quantitative features were taxonomically described in accordance with the provisions of International Association of Wood Anatomists, and their diagnostic values among the medicinal herbs were explored. Bark anatomical markers that are clearly diagnostic of the species studied included features of the secondary cortex, phloem rays, axial parenchyma, sclereids and resin ducts. In the wood, these included features of the vessels in the TS and variable ray characteristics in the TLS. The two artificial keys obtained from discontinuities in qualitative and quantitative features observed in the barks and the woods are useful tools for reliable identification of the herbal materials studied.

Antimicrobials in food packaging are used to enhance quality and safety by reducing surface contamination of processed food. This study investigated the effects of Aloe vera- coated packaging materials on the microbial quality characteristics of breadfruit flour. Breadfruit flour was packaged in Jute bag (JB), Kalico bag (KA), low-density Polyethylene-lined Brown paper (LDPEBP) and they were compared with control. Samples were analyzed for changes in microbiological (total colony count and total fungal count) and moisture content during a storage period of 12 weeks interval during storage at ambient temperature of 25 ± 2oC. Packaging significantly (p< 0.05) affected the moisture content and microbiological of breadfruit flour during storage. The moisture content, total colony count, and total fungi count significantly (p< 0.05) increased as the storage time increased. The sample packaged in Brown paper (BP) were more acceptable than those in other packaging materials.