Fungal contamination of medicinal herbs during commercial storage in Punjab

Pakistan has a variety of herbs and medicinal plant resources, due to its varied ecological conditions. Large number of physicians of south Asia (locally called Hakeems and Tib-e-Unani or Ayurvedic medicines) use herbs, plant parts and extracts for treating human diseases. Source of medicinal plants are hilly areas, deserts and coastal zones of the country. Major supply of medicinal herbs is wild plant collection rather than cultivation. Due to improper storage of medicinal plants in the shops a wide variety of mycoflora gets activated. Usually plant parts of different material and their products are stored under unhygienic conditions. So they are exposed to a wide variety of biological and chemical contaminations. Interviews were conducted from markets and shops of southern, central and northern districts of province Punjab, Pakistan to investigate the prevalence and nature of contamination. Dried mycelium and spores of Alternaria species, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicilliuim sp. Botrytis cinerea and Aspergillus niger were recorded.