Pakistan pharmaceutical industries have grown to grab their position amongst top ten pharmaceutical industries of Asia Pacific region. These are serving with 80% of pharmaceutical needs. The industry on the other hand faces some challenges in terms of sterile pharmaceutical product manufacturing. The fungal contamination causes spoilage to pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, and food products. The fungal contamination to pharmaceutical products has resulted in direct losses to human health and to economy.
A total of 50 air samples were collected from clean area of a pharmaceutical production unit by exposing sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) plates by settle plate method (4 hours exposure). Fungal colonies were purified by sub-culturing and later identified macroscopically and microscopically. Selected biocides included isopropyl alcohol (70%), chloroxylenol (20%), chlorhexidine gluconate (20%), and benzalkonium chloride (20%) were used in this study. A 100 μl of spore suspension of each fungal contaminant (1.0 × 106 to 5.0 × 106 spores/mL) was exposed to 9.9 mL of biocide preparation for 15 and 30 minutes while exposure was stopped by adding 1 mL of mixture (spores exposed to biocide) into 9 mL of respective neutralizing agents The enumeration of colonies was started immediately after the growth was visible and expressed as Mean±S.D. and converted to log10. Antifungal activity of biocides was expressed as log10 reduction and different biocides‟ activity was compared using ANOVA technique by graphed prism 5.0 statistical software.
Total 204 colony forming units (CFU) were identified from filling area (36), solution room (47), and buffers (121). The antifungal activity in terms of log reduction was lowest by isopropyl alcohol at 15 minutes and highest was shown by chlorohexidine gluconate at 30 minutes against
Summary
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Aspergillus flavus. In case of Aspergillus fumigatus all the biocides presented significant difference of antifungal activity at 15 minutes. The response of Aspergillus niger against different biocides at 15 minutes and 30 minutes was same as was in case of Aspergillus flavus while each biocide‟s antifungal activity was found significantly increased with increase in time of exposure. The similar response of antifungal activity of different biocides at both exposure times was noted against Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The antifungal activity of all biocides against penicillium was found significant different at 15 minutes and 30 minutes exposure time. Similarly, each biocide‟s antifungal activity increased with increase in time of exposure. On overall basis, isopropyl alcohol was found less effective while benzalkonium chloride and chlorohexidine gluconate presented comparatively higher efficacy against fungal isolates.