ABSTRACT
Oral liquid drugs are homogeneous liquid preparations usually consisting of a solution, an emulsion or a suspension of one or more medicaments in a suitable vehicle. The assessment of microbial quality of selected oral liquid drugs is essential to production of quality syrups for consumption as well as helps in mitigating the contamination rate of locally produced drugs. This research is therefore carried out to evaluate the physicochemical and microbiological quality of syrups commonly sold in Asaba metropolis, Delta State. 12 A total of hundred (100) oral syrups consisting of different brands with respective metadata such as NAFDAC and batch number, manufacturing dates and expiry dates were collected and documented. Syrups were analysed for microbiological and physicochemical parameters using standard methods. Objectionable bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella and Candida spp. were evaluated using phenotypic methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility and their multiple antibiotic resistance were evaluated. Results revealed that the average pH values obtained for paracetamol, cough syrup, vitamin C, albendazole and antacid syrups were 4.75, 4.49, 9.44, 5.80 and 5.35 respectively. The percentage assay(active ingredient) levels of the different classes and brands of the paracetamol, cough, vitamin C, albendazole and antacid syrups were 97.56, 99.03, 95.39, 93.94 and 96.29% respectively indicated that they are within the acceptable pharmacopeia standards. The microbial count (the Log10) of objectionable bacteria in cough syrup was 1.87±0.12 cfu/ml for Staphylococcus aureus while the microbial count of objectionable bacteria in antacid syrup was 2.84±0.09 cfu/ml. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterial count ranged from 0 for all the cough syrup brands to 1.86 for albendazole syrup brands. Candida spp were not found in paracetamol and cough syrup brands but in syrups where they were found, the values ranged from 1.36 (for antacid) to 1.52 (for vitamin C). Twenty (20) % of the syrup brands have the probability of being contaminated by objectionable bacteria and three (3) % by fungi based on pharmacopeia established standards. The detected microbial isolates in syrups samples include Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida spp. The susceptibility pattern of the bacteria isolates showed that none of the isolates from Staphylococcus aureus was resistant to Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid while all the isolates were resistant to both ciprofloxacin and cefuroxime. The resistance pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed that all its isolates were resistant to nitrofurantoin as well as 13 cefuroxime. The MAR index of the bacterial isolates exceeded the permissible limit of 0.2 which are of public health importance.
