drug adultiration

Drug adulteration
The term adulteration means debasement (decrease the quality or decrease the value) of an article or any drug which may be deliberate or accidental. Usually in crude drugs, this practice includes substitution of the original crude drugs partially or fully with other substances which is either free from or inferior in therapeutic and chemical properties.
it involves a number of different conditions:
1- Inferiority رداءة: is a natural substandard condition (e.g. where a crop is taken whose natural constituent is below the minimum standard for that particular drug) which can be avoided by more careful selection of the plant material.
e.g. the dried ripe seeds of strychnos nux vomica, contains the alkaloid strychnine about 1.15% but when contain less than 1.15% of strychnine its considered inferior or substandard drug.
2- Spoilage التلف: is a substandard condition produced by the action of bacteria, fungi , which makes the product not suitable for human use , this can be avoided by careful attention to the drying, and storage conditions.
3- Deterioration: is an impairment of the quality or value of a drug due to destruction or abstraction of valuable constituents by bad treatment or aging or to the deliberate متعمد extraction of the constituents and the sale of the residue as the original drugs.
The factors which must be considered in relation to drug deterioration are moisture content, temperature, light and the presence of oxygen. When these conditions are suitable organisms (bacteria, molds and insects) are rapidly multiply using the drug as a source of nutrient. Drugs affected in this way are excluded by national pharmacopoeias.