Microbiological standardization some pharmaceutical preparations

Abstract

Previous experience gained in this laboratory has indicated that it is possible to evolve suitable methods for testing the potency of Ayurvedic medicines as well as medicinal plants. It is realised by all that Ayurvedic preparations, although in use in our country for a long time and still popular owing to the faith of the people in their effectiveness and their availability at cheap rates, lack standards with respect to their quality. As a result, the markets are flooded with spurious preparations which may cause ill health in the people indulging in these preparations. It was therefore considered worthwhile to assess the claims made for these medicinal preparations by resorting, as far as possible, to microbiological methods and to lay down, if possible, standards for their manufacture now that the State and the Union Government are keen on enforcing drug regulations for the welfare of the population at large. Three of the popular Ayurvedic medicines-Drakshasava, Lohasava, and Drakshanolileha-have been investigated in detail during the course of this study. Various chemical analyses were carried out on them with a view to arriving at approximate analyses of the preparations for their various constituents, viz., those considered to be present therein by virtue of the claims made for their therapeutic action. A dozen important and interesting bacteria belonging to various genera such as Bacillus, Micrococcus, Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces, and Corynebacterium were made use of in investigating nutrients present in these preparations, and valuable assays were evolved during their microbiological evaluation. By the use of Clostridium lacto acetylicum, for example, a very reliable and sensitive method has been evolved for the assay of iron, and this has been found to be valuable for the standardisation of Lohasava. The method is specifically applicable in that the organism’s response is specific for iron only (but not to other related metals) in any of its combinations-organic, inorganic, divalent, trivalent, cationic or otherwise. Likewise, other interesting pharmaceutical preparations such as the heart extract, for which so many claims have been made, have been examined by application of modern methods of analysis such as electrophoresis and chromatography, and valuable information has been collected. The usefulness of heart extract in the cultivation of micro-organisms has been investigated into and the results explained by resorting to the knowledge obtained on the nutritional requirements of the fastidious micro-organisms used therein. A new organism, Corynebacterium carotinoferum, has been described. It synthesises and excretes carotene, as established by spectrophotometric analysis. This bacterium is invaluable in the standardisation of Vitamin A in liver extracts and for the biological evaluation of proteins.