Resumen

ACOSTA DE LA LUZ, Lérida; CARBALLO GUERRA, Caridad  y  RAMOS, Raúl. Quality control of vegetable drugs: washing and disinfection of Artemisia annua L. and Tagetes lucida Cav. Rev Cubana Plant Med [online]. 2012, vol.17, n.1, pp. 101-107. ISSN 1028-4796.

Introduction: the use of washing and chemical disinfection as a method allows reducing microbial pollution in the harvested vegetal material of Artemisia annua L. and Tagetes lucida Cav. Objectives: to assure the microbiological quality of vegetal drugs from these two medicinal species. Methods: there was used some vegetal material from lots on red hydrated ferralitic soils (ferrasols) located in «Dr Juan Tomás Roig» Experimental Center of Medicinal Plants. Two controls, one treated with drinking water and the other untreated, were used. For lab tests, the 300g A. annua and 250g T. lucida samples were washed with drinking water and then were subjected to disinfection process using 0.5 and 1.0% sodium hypochloride in which both samples were submerged for 5 and 10 minutes. The most effective chemical treatment at lab was selected for the scaling test of three replicas of the crude drug from 10 kg of A. annua and from 6 kg T. lucida respectively. The samples were placed upon frames to be dried later at 35 to 40 ^oC for 2 hours. After drying, the corresponding microbiological and physical-chemical analyses were performed. The microbiological analysis determined the total count of bacteria, of fungi and other enterobacteria in addition to isolated microorganisms. The physical and chemical analysis estimated the percentages of foreign organic matter, foreign inorganic matter and blackened leaves; and the indexes of humidity, total ashes, soluble substances in water, soluble substances in 30% etanol and soluble substances in 70% etanol. On the other hand, the phytochemical screening determined the presence of secondary metabolites. Results: the samples washed into drinking water were highly polluted in both species, which supported the use of chemical disinfection. The microbiological count both in lab tests and in the scaling showed that the microbial load lowered up to allowable limits in A. annua when submerged into 0.5% sodium hypochlorite for 5 minutes, and in T. lucida when submerged for 10 minutes in the same solution. The physical and chemical quality of both vegetal drugs remained unchanged. Conclusions: the concentration and time of submersion under test proved to be adequate for the microbiological control of the vegetal material of both plants.

Palabras clave : Artemisia annua; Tagetes lucida; microbiological quality; decontamination of vegetal material; chemical disinfection of vegetal drug.

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