Abstract
The presence of these pathogenic organisms may contribute to the spoilage of these products and also may be source of infection to the consumers. This study was conducted to identify the presence of microbial contaminants in the samples of various raw materials used for the manufacturing of different pharmaceutical products. A total of 35 samples of 14 different raw materials (both active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients) were subjected to total viable count and test for existence of pathogens using standard conventional techniques. Microbial load not varied among the APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and the excipients were found contaminated. APIs contamination was found less than that of excipients in the samples tested.In general, bacterial contamination was less than 2.0x10² cfu/ml in the active samples tested and 6.0x10² cfu/ml for excipients tested and gram negative bacteria were accounted for contamination of the samples