Bioburden of Pharmacy Prepared Eucerin-Urea Ointments

Pharmaceutical products prepared in pharmacies have the potential of contamination with different microorganisms. This is in part due to the unhygienic environment and also lack of a suitable preservative system. In this study, microbial quality of Eucerin-Urea ointments prepared at different pharmacies in Tehran, at the point of sale and also after two weeks storage at room temperature was examined. All the samples examined immediately after purchase found to have total viable counts of lower than 10² cfu/g. The objectionable organisms e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, however, were found in about 77%, 45.5%, 9.1% and 4.5% of the samples, respectively. After two weeks storage, contamination levels increased such that about 36.4% of samples were found to have the total viable counts greater than 10² cfu/g and Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp. were isolated from 86%, 59%, 18.2% and 9.1% of the samples. Depicted results show that significant microbial contamination of unhygienically produced or poorly formulated products in pharmacies can occur and because of lacking a suitable preservative system, the microbial population will increase during storage which may be harmful to the consumers or patients.