Pathogenic microorganisms of medicinal herbal drugs

Abstract

All the parts of plants (root, leaf, flower) naturally have a high level of microorganisms, bacteria and fungi, especially molds. Microbial contamination could be a result of inappropriate harvesting, cleaning of the raw plant material, unhygienic processing of the plants, unsuitable transport and storage. After examination of over 40 dried medicinal plant species, the lowest microbial quality was determined for Maydis stigma, Mentha leaf and herb, Equisetum herb, Calendula flower, Urtica leaf, Melissa leaf, Serpylli herb, Chamomilla flower etc. Although mixed infections are recorded with different types of fungus, Fusarium was observed as the most dominant genus in most of the tested drugs, followed by Aspergillus and Alternaria. In addition to these fungi species from the following genera were identified: Phoma, Cephalosporium, Nigrospora, Cladosporium, Epicoccum, Gliocladium, Myrothecium, Cercospora, Phomopsis, Verticillium, Dreschlera (=Bipolaris), Rhizoctonia, Septoria, Trichoderma, Curvularia, Stachybotrys, Trichothecium, Puccinia, Botrytis, Mucor and Rhizopus sp., depending on plant species.

Keywords

• Herbal drugs
• microbial contamination
• bacteria
• molds
• mycotoxins