Abstract

BENAVIDES-HERNANDEZ, Edison A; CORONEL-GAVIRIA, Anabeli  and  RUIZ-GARCIA, Dalia V. A microbiological analysis of the ethnopharmacological products used by the Misak people. Rev. salud pública [online]. 2014, vol.16, n.4, pp.610-620. ISSN 0124-0064.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rsap.v16n4.41020.

Objectives Evaluating microorganism presence, type and quantity in some of the most important ethnopharmacological products designed for oral administration currently being distributed by the Sierra Morena laboratory located in the Guambia Indian reservation (Cauca department, Colombia). Materials and Methods This was a cross-sectional descriptive study; it involved microbiological analysis using membrane filtration of six randomly-chosen samples which included the water being used by the laboratory and five of its ethnopharmacological products ready for commercial distribution and sale. Results The samples studied here were not microbiologically suitable for human consumption because they contained Escherichia coli and fecal coliforms. Colony forming unit (CFU) count/100 mL (reference 0 CFU/100 mL) was found to be up to 63,000 CFU/100 mL in water samples and 110 CFU/100 mL in ethnopharmacological samples. Conclusions The quantitative results revealed the presence of pathogens, indicating failure in rural water supply and environmental sanitation infrastructure. On-going monitoring of water quality and an urgent intervention of the laboratory’s ethnopharmacological production is necessary because of the contamination found there.

Keywords : Ethnopharmacology; rural water supply; river water pollution; drug contamination.

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