Berbagai Kontaminan Biologis yang Ditemukan pada Obat Herbal

Abstract

Many developing countries have great demand of herbal medicines. Their role in primary health care is important because herbal preparations have wide range of biological activities, higher safety margins and lesser costs. They are assumed to be safe, but there are many possibilities of contaminations, such as biological contamination. All the parts of plants (root, leaf, flower) naturally have a high level of microorganisms, bacteria and fungi, especially molds. Another substances that may contaminate plants as raw material of herbal medicines are parasite and insect. Biological contamination could be a result of inappropriate harvesting, cleaning of the raw material, unhygienic processing, unsuitable transport and storage. The presence of biological contamination becomes a potential health risk to a vast population that depends on herbal medicines for their health care need.