Quality Control of some Paediatric Preparations in Nigerian Market.

Abstract

The issue of faking, profiteering, adulteration, production of substandard drugs and inappropriate methods used in manufacturing of drugs is a common occurrence. These may lead to sub or non-therapeutic effect of drugs especially in children which may increase morbidity and mortality among them. Therefore, drugs need routine quality control involving both chemical and microbiological analysis be carried out on them to ensure and ascertain that they meet up to official standard in order to promote quality and efficacy. This work is thus aimed at the carrying out chemical and microbiological analysis on eleven (11) brands of paracetamol syrup, eleven (11) brands of Ascorbic acid syrup and ten (10) brands of Metonidazole suspension found in the Nigerian environment to determine their quality using official methods. Microbiological analysis was done using pour plate method and chemical analysis of percentage content of active ingredients was done using official methods according to British Pharmcopoeia. Results showed that the microbiological analysis of all the three types of oral liquid preparations gave satisfactory results. Only one brand of Ascorbic acid syrup failed the microbiological analysis based on official standards. The Chemical analysis of the products however, can generally be said to be unsatisfactory. Six out of the eleven brands of Paracetamol syrup; ten out of the eleven brands of Ascorbic acid syrup and three out of the ten brands of Metronidazole suspension all failed the chemical analysis. Most of them recorded low percentage content of their active components in the various formulations.