Evaluation of preservative effectiveness in ophthalmic drops by microbial challenge test

Authors

  • Uttam Prasad Semwal Microbiology Division, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Ghaziabad, 201 001, India
  • Pradeep Sharma Microbiology Division, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Ghaziabad, 201 001, India
  • Alok Sharma Microbiology Division, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Ghaziabad, 201 001, India
  • G. N. Singh Microbiology Division, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Ghaziabad, 201 001, India

Keywords:

Ophthalmic drops, preservative, pharmacopoeia, microorganisms

Abstract

Ophthalmic drops face the problem of microbial spoilage during their use and storage which affects consumer safety. Protection of these multiple dosage products against microbial contamination is usually achieved by addition of a suitable preservative, but sometimes some clinical hazards are observed even after addition of preservatives. The aim of present study was to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of different preservatives present in three ophthalmic drop samples collected from local market through microbial challenge test. The samples of ophthalmic drops were challenged with 3 bacterial and 2 fungal strains and results were periodically (0, 7, 14 and 28 days) investigated. The number of survive microorganisms were determined using standard microbiological dilution pour-plate method. More than 1 log reduction of microbial counts was observed in all samples at 7 day. Moreover, the log reductions in microbial count were significantly increased up to 28 day. Results showed that ophthalmic drop samples having different preservatives i.e. Benzalkonium chloride, Benzyl alcohal and Phenyl mercuric nitrate were effective against all the challenged microorganisms.  However, Phenyl mercuric nitrate was found to be most effective. Hence, from this study it is concluded that preservatives present in all tested ophthalmic drop samples are effective in preventing contamination of the product during their use and storage.

Downloads

Published

2015-01-02

How to Cite

Uttam Prasad Semwal, Pradeep Sharma, Alok Sharma, & G. N. Singh. (2015). Evaluation of preservative effectiveness in ophthalmic drops by microbial challenge test. World Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 3(1), 31–36. Retrieved from https://wjpsonline.com/index.php/wjps/article/view/evaluation-preservative-effectiveness-ophthalmic-drops

Issue

Section

Research Article

Most read articles by the same author(s)