Microbiological Contamination of Cosmetics collected in Osaka Prefecture (1972-1977)

Abstract

The microbiological quality of a variety of cosmetics, collected in Osaka Prefecture from 1972 to 1977, has been investigated.By this surveys, about 15% of 657 samples of unused cosmetics were found to be contaminated with bacteria and fungi.The most frequently contaminations in cosmetic products, were found in facial or hand creams (34% of 152 samples), liquid creams (21% of 42 samples), liquid shampoos (18% of samples) and hair lotions (15% of 46 samples), whereas we have rarely detected microbiological contamination less than 10% of the samples (which include hair sprays, hair tonics and facial or hand lotions).In these majority of cosmetic products contaminated with microorganisms, gram-possitive or gram-negative bacteria (which includes Bacillus, Micrococcus, and the like) and mold were mainly found as the lower microbiological counts (which not mostly exceed 1000 per gram or ml). But some specific bacteria (St. aureus, Ps. aeruginosa, E. coli and Coli-forms organisms) were not isolated from such contaminated cosmetics.In the view of these results, it is obvious that the total counts (in a low microbiological load) can be excellent index of micro-biological quality.