Application of microbiological techniques in the analysis of water for injections

Microorganisms constitute the world of microscopic or sub-microscopic form of diverse life. They constitute a world of their own, full of uniqueness from different biological standpoints. These micro organisms not only contribute to the well being of mankind, they also put lives at risk due to their pathogenic nature. They are not only harmful to humans but to various industries such as food, pharmaceuticals etc. as they contaminate the products of these industries and render them unfit for human consumption and may cause serious diseases and disorders. Big economic losses have been recorded by microbial contamination. Microbial contamination means presence of viable bacterial and fungal cells in the products and associated materials. It is necessary to enumerate total microbial count in finished products as their presence indicates the poor quality of products. The main source of bacterial and fugal contaminations in pharmaceutical industries are from the unhygienic area, unprocessed water, contaminated equipments and containers, person itself and contaminated material being used for drug formation.

Now a days, plant derived pharmaceutical products are being used worldwide as they do not put the human life at risk by their adverse side effects as the synthetic pharmaceutical preparations do. Moreover certain injections which are water based are also being increasingly used These preparations are believed to promote health and maintain body's resistance against infection by re-establishing the body's equilibrium.

Comparatively drugs are at a higher risk of contamination as their active ingredients are obtained from soil, water etc. where enormous microbial niche is already present. Improper harvesting and handling of plant material increases the load of contamination. Further interference of the handlers and workers and lack of proper hygiene of individuals and machineries also increase the numbers of microorganisms.

In order to check the growth of these pathogens and to ensure a pathogen free and potent pharmaceutical product, it is mandatory to apply microbiological techniques for microbial analysis (from the area of production to the finished product) so that safe medicine comes in market and the patient could consume it fearlessly. The present course of study has been done to evaluate medicinal materials for total bacterial count, total fungal (yeast and molds) count, total enterobacters count. There are huge numbers of microbial pathogens and all of them could not be detected at same time. So we have considered only those microbes which are commonly responsible for drug contamination and are associated with humans such as E.coli, Salmonella sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus etc.