Bacteriological Profiling of Commercially Available Eye Cosmetics and their Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern

Suchhanda Nandi,Shyamapada Mandal

doi:10.21767/2172-0479.100080

Abstract

Background and Objective: Various types of cosmetics, including the eye cosmetic (EC) one, have been reported worldwide to be contaminated with potential bacterial pathogens causing several infections to humans. The current study determines the bacterial contaminants of commercially available ECs in Malda (West Bengal state, India) and to explore the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of the isolated bacteria. Methods and Findings: A total of 10 various ECs were purchased from Malda town market, India, and the bacterial growth were enriched in nutrient broth, inoculated with 5-10 mg of each of the test samples. The pure bacteria culture obtained from the samples were identified by phenotypic characterization, as Bacillus cereus (n=3), Bacillus sp. (n=1), Chromobacterium violaceum (n=2), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=1), and Listeria monocytogenes (n=2). The antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated bacteria was determined by disc diffusion method using 10 antibiotics; most of the isolates were resistant to three or more antibiotics, among ampicillin, cefpodoxime, nalidixic acid, trimethoprim and vancomycin. The calculated Antibiotic Resistance Index (ARI) for the test isolates was 0.055, while the multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index was 0.3 for L. monocytogenes, 0.4 for C. violaceum, and 0.5 for Ps. aeruginosa; the isolated Bacillus sp. had MAR index of zero. Conclusion: The current data suggest the emergence of antibiotic resistance among bacterial strains in ECs and provide insight into the problems of overuse and/or misuse of antimicrobial agents, and the public awareness on cosmetic safety as well.

Highlights

Microbial contamination of cosmetics is a major public health problem [1,2], and the cause of concern to the industries, the users as well the clinicians
Orus and Leranzo [6] reported the isolation of gram-positive bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis as well as gramnegative bacteria: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli from mascara and eye pencil
The antibiotic susceptibility for the bacterial strains from eye cosmetic (EC) was determined by disc diffusion method [17], using MuellerHinton agar (Hi-Media, India) plates, which were swabinoculated with overnight grown broth culture of the isolates, and were incubated with ten antibiotic discs (Hi-Media, India): ciprofloxacin (CIP), vancomycin (VA), nalidixic acid (NA), meropenem (MRP), ampicillin (AMP), cefpodoxime (CPD), cefotaxime (CTX), trimethoprim (TR), gentamycin (GEN) and amikacin (AK)

Summary

Introduction

Microbial contamination of cosmetics is a major public health problem [1,2], and the cause of concern to the industries, the users as well the clinicians. In India, the use of kohl in pediatric age is a common practice to keep the eyes cool, clean and with improved vision [3], while the older infants, children and women apply kohl for beautification and to protect and treat eye diseases Such agents including the eye-cosmetics may have the capability to serve as the vehicles of bacterial infection into the eyes of the users if contaminated products are used, or can disseminate the infection into others when such agents are shared or misused [4]. The current study determines the bacterial contaminants of commercially available ECs in Malda (West Bengal state, India) and to explore the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of the isolated bacteria.

Methods

Results

Conclusion