Quality Assessment of Selected Anti-Asthmatic Herbal Products Marketed in Kaduna State Metropolis, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Herbal medicines are the oldest form of healthcare known to humanity and it is used worldwide for prevention and treatment of different disease conditions. The presence and proliferation of substandard herbal medicines in the market that do not fulfil standards set by the regulating bodies in Nigerian is a matter of concern. Objective: To assess quality of some anti-asthmatic herbal products marketed in Kaduna State using standard methods. Method: Ten (10) different samples of anti-asthmatic herbal products marketed in Kaduna metropolis were selected randomly and standard methods by World Health Organization methods, Trease and Evans, and digestion by AOAC were used to assess the quality of the herbal samples. Results: The result obtained showed that 50 % of the herbal preparations contain moisture content higher than the permissible limit (8 %), while 40 and 10 % of the samples had water extractive and alcohol extractive values respectively lower than the 15 % minimum limit stipulated by European Pharmacopeia. Also, 30 % of the samples had higher ash values than the 14 % maximum acceptable limit recommended by European Pharmacopoeia. All the herbal preparations analyzed contain cardiac glycosides, carbohydrates, alkaloids, steroids and flavonoid, while 80 % of the samples contain terpenoids, 70 % of the samples contain saponins and 50 % contain tannins. Also, 80 and 50 % of the samples analyzed contained cadmium and lead respectively above WHO permissible limits (0.3 and 10 ppm respectively). Conclusion: None of the anti-asthmatic herbal products analyzed passed the quality assessment carried out in this study.