ABSTRACT

This study was to evaluate the microbiological quality of expired and non expired vitamin C syrups sold in Umuahia metropolis. The bacterial isolates from the syrup samples were identified by morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy, biochemical test. This bacteria isolated were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella species, and Bacillus species respectively, while the fungi isolated were; Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. The total bacteria counts ranged from 1.0x105 to 9.7x104, while the fungi counts ranged from 1.01 x105 to 5.2x104. Amongst the expired syrup samples investigated for its microbiological quality however within Umuahia, Sample 8 had the highest bacteria count of 9.7x104 (cfu/ml), followed by Sample 2 (7.1x104cfu/ml), while the least bacteria count was recorded for Sample 3 (1.7x105cfu/ml). The total fungal plate count investigated on the different syrup samples, reveals sample 7 as having the highest fungi count at 5.2x104 (cfu/ml) and sample 5 having the least viable fungi count at 1.01x105 (cfu/ml). These values are higher when compared to non-expired syrup samples. The contamination rate and percentage distribution accessed on the both expired and non-expired vitamin C and Multivitamin Syrup revealed that Staphylococcus aureus is the most frequently occurring isolates with a high percentage occurrence of (30.0%) followed by Escherichia coli (22.5%). However, there were wide variations in the fungi population, with Aspergillus flavus (15.0%) being most predominant and occurring isolates. However the result showed clearly that more microorganisms were isolated from the expired Multivitamin and Vitamin C syrups. Failure to apply good and sound manufacturing practices can lead to microbial contaminations and as such the overall quality of the final product suffers a huge reduction. Therefore, it is safe to buy and consume non-expired drugs against the expired drugs.