Evaluation of microbial contamination in rose water samples extracted from Rosa damascena petals

Plants extract have extensively used in various countries as alternative medicines. However, contaminations of microbes in these medicines possibly affect human health. The current study was performed toward an evaluation of the pathogenic abundance in freshly extracted and marketed rose water samples. Twelve samples of rose water were utilized in that study, making serial dilution (1:10, 1:100, 1:1000) of all samples indivisually.1ml of each dilution sample was dropped on muller-Hinton agar sterile plates and incubated for 24 hrs at 37 oC for bacterial growth. All the commercial samples show contamination of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacilli. However, the sample which is freshly prepared in the lab showed no contamination. The existence of bacteria in samples recommended the fact that aseptic management throughout the processing of plant extracts and appropriate storage and packaging is necessary.