Safe usage of cosmetics in Bangladesh: a quality perspective based on microbiological attributes

Abstract

© 2015 Noor et al. The present review attempted to emphasize on the microbiological quality of the commonly used cosmetics item by the majority of the Bangladeshi community. The abundance of contaminating microorganisms has been quantitatively discussed and the possible health risk has been focused upon usage of these items. Only a very few research efforts have been conducted on the cosmetic items in Bangladesh so far. The microbiological contamination aspects have been portrayed in this review using the information collected from a substantial number of cosmetic items which were earlier subjected to extensive microbiological and biochemical analyses. The prevalence of bacteria, fungi and the specific pathogenic microorganisms has been discussed based on research so far locally conducted on the finished items sold in markets, especially within the Dhaka metropolis. The laboratory scale experiments revealed the presence of enormous number of bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi within the commonly used cosmetics. Conversely, the anti-bacterial activity was noticed in some of the products which might be in favor of the user safety. The prevalence of pathogenic microorganisms in the cosmetic items certainly raises a substantial public health issue. The necessity of the routine microbiological testing of the commonly used cosmetic items as well as the legislative measures to mitigate the contamination problem is thus of great significance.