Herb medicines are traditional medicine in Japan and have been used for medical treatment. These herb medicines are contaminating frequently by microorganisms which has possibility to cause opportunistic diseases. Recently, hygienic standard of herb medicines become more strict than before, and it needs to decontaminate microorganisms by some treatments. However, chemical treatments such as by ethylene oxide fumigation leave toxic residues in the herbs while steam sterilization decrease medicinal components. From study on the distribution of microorganisms in 31 samples of selected herb medicines, colony forming units of total aerobic bacteria were determined to be 1.9 × 10
2 to 1.4 × 10
8per gram in 30 samples. Coliforms were also determined to be 6.9 × 10
2 to 4.3 × 10
6 per gram in 16 samples. The main aerobic bacteria were identified as
Bacillus pumilus, B.circulans, B. megaterium, Erwinia, Enterobacterand
Acinetobacter, whereas consisted mainly of
Enterobacter in coliform counts. Molds were determined to be 6.3 × 10
1 to 1.9 × 10
5 per gram which consisted mainly
Aspergillus glaucus group,
A. restrictus group,
A. flavus group,
A. ostianus, A. phoenicis, Penicillium, Tricoderma, Rhizopus and
Alternaria in 25 samples. A study on the inactivation of microorganisms at sample No. S18 showed that a gamma-irradiation dose of 20 kGy was required to reduce the total aerobic bacteria and the coliforms below a detectable level, while radiation-resistant bacteria were survived at high doses more than 10 kGy consisted with
Acinetobacter and
Enterobacter. Molds were inactivated below 8 kGy except
Alternaria. However, a dose of 10 kGy should be effective for the sample No. S18 to reduce the spore-forming bacteria, the fecal coliforms and the molds below a detectable level per gram. On the study of inactivation of microorganisms in many samples except the No. 18, all kinds of microorganism were inactivated below a detectable level at 10 kGy irradiation.
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