Bacteriological profile of pharmaceutical water used for production purpose

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the bacteriological quality of pharmaceutical water used for production purposes (cosmetics, medicine, etc.). Materials and methods: An experimental study was conducted of 20 pharmaceutical water samples, collected from reputed pharmaceutical companies located in Peshawar, Pakistan. To enumerate the overall microbial load and particular pathogens from the obtained water samples traditional culture and biochemical approaches were used. Results: A total aerobic viable bacterial load of all samples were found below the acceptable limit (200 CFU/mL) while, Pseudomonas species were found (n=03), and Escherichia coli was found (n=01). No evidence of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella species were found in any of the samples. Conclusion The current study provides a comprehensive bacteriological profile of pharmaceutical water and demonstrates that the presence of particular bacteria might cause significant toxicity and hazard in final pharmaceutical products.