EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF SOME SELECTED HERBAL PRODUCTS IN PORT HARCOURT METROPOLITAN

The herbal medicine industry is currently facing significant challenges that undermine its potential to provide safe, consistent, and efficacious herbal products to consumers. These challenges encompass various aspects of the herbal product lifecycle and pose substantial risks to both consumers and the industry itself. The study was aimed to evaluate the quality of some selected herbal products in Rivers State which include Dibandu tea, Cancer control tea, Ijele hibiscus tea and Ginseng root. The physico-chemical parameters were determined using standard analytical methods and the heavy metals were determined using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) after wet digestion. They were evaluated for Weight uniformity, physico-chemical properties, phyto-chemical constituent, presence of heavy metals and microbial contaminations following standard procedures. The result of the physiochemical parameters which include moisture content, water soluble ash, acid insoluble ash, water extractive value, alcohol extractive values, choloroform extractive values, foaming index for the four products. The phytochemical screening results showed a varied composition in each of the products. Weight uniformity and variations showed a deviation from the average weight within the range of 0.034-0.066. All the herbal products contain heavy metals which shows that they were present in quantities higher than the WHO stipulated limit. Microbial contamination count shows the presence of bacteria and fungi colonies in this product with some of them exceeding the WHO recommended limits. Based on the analysis of the four herbal products, the findings have revealed with respect to microbial load, heavy metals and weight uniformity are compromised while other parameters are within the standard.