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►TOYS
►REGULATIONS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
Effectiveness
of Antimicrobial Preservatives
USP 51 –
Test Parameters
Antimicrobial Preservatives – Effectiveness:
Tested Organism - Candida albicans (ATCC No. 10231)
- Aspergillus
- Escherichia coli (ATCC No. 8739)
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC No. 9027)
- Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC No. 6538)
Results
Recovered
Inoculum cfu/ml (% Reduction) is determined on Day 7, Day 14, Day 21 and Day 28.
cfu = colony forming unit
Toy
Cosmetics
With regard to toys, Clause 4.3.6.4 of ASTM
F963-07 refers to USP 51 for the potential microbiological degradation of toy
cosmetics.
Details
of the organisms
Candida albicans is a diploid fungus (a form of yeast), which is
capable of mating but not of meiosis, and a causal agent of opportunistic oral and genital
infections in humans. Systemic fungal infections (fungemias) have
emerged as important causes of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised
patients (e.g., AIDS,
cancer chemotherapy,
organ or bone
marrow transplantation). In addition, hospital-related infections in
patients not previously considered at risk (e.g. patients in an intensive care
unit) have become a cause of major health concern.
C. albicans is among the gut flora,
the many organisms which live in the human mouth and gastrointestinal tract. Under normal
circumstances, C. albicans lives in 80% of the human population with no
harmful effects, although overgrowth results in candidiasis.
Candidiasis is often observed in immunocompromised
individuals such as HIV-positive
patients. Candidiasis also may occur in the blood and in the genital tract.
Candidiasis, also known as "thrush", is a common condition which is
usually easily cured in people who are not immunocompromised. To infect host
tissue, the usual unicellular yeast-like form of Candida
albicans reacts to environmental cues and switches into an invasive,
multicellular filamentous forms.
Aspergillus niger is a fungus and one of
the most common species of the genus Aspergillus.
It causes a disease called black mold on certain fruits and vegetables such as
grapes, onions, and peanuts, and is a common contaminant of food. It is
ubiquitous in soil and is commonly reported from indoor environments, where its
black colonies can be confused with those of Stachybotrys
(species of which have also been called "black mold").
Some strains of A. niger have been reported to produce potent mycotoxins
called ochratoxins,
but other sources
disagree, claiming the latter report is based upon misidentification of the
fungal species. Genomic sequence comparisons have also led to the demonstration
of another Fumonisins, another important mycotoxin Recent evidence suggests
some true A. niger strains do produce ochratoxin
A.
Escherichia coli (E.coli) is a bacterium
that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded animals. Most E.
coli strains are harmless, but some, such as serotype O157:H7, can cause serious food
poisoning in humans, and are occasionally responsible for costly product
recalls. The harmless strains are part of the normal
flora of the gut,
and can benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2,
or by preventing the establishment of pathogenic
bacteria within the intestine.[4][5]
E. coli are not always confined to the intestine, and their
ability to survive for brief periods outside the body makes them an ideal indicator organism to test environmental samples
for fecal
contamination. The bacteria can also be grown easily and its genetics are
comparatively simple and easily-manipulated, making it one of the best-studied
prokaryotic model organisms, and an important species in biotechnology.
E. coli was discovered by German pediatrician and bacteriologist Theodor
Escherich in 1885, and is now classified as part of the Enterobacteriaceae family of gamma-proteobacteria.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative,
aerobic,
rod-shaped bacterium
with unipolar
motility. An opportunistic human pathogen, P.
aeruginosa is also an opportunistic pathogen of plants. P. aeruginosa
is the type
species of the genus Pseudomonas (Migula 1894).
P. aeruginosa secretes a variety of pigments, including pyocyanin (blue-green), fluorescein
(yellow-green and fluorescent, now also known as pyoverdin), and pyorubin
(red-brown). King, Ward, and Raney developed Pseudomonas Agar P (aka King A
media) for enhancing pyocyanin and pyorubin production and Pseudomonas Agar F
(aka King B media) for enhancing fluorescein production.
P. aeruginosa is often preliminarily identified by its pearlescent
appearance and grape-like odor in vitro.
Definitive clinical identification of P. aeruginosa often includes
identifying the production of both pyocyanin and fluorescein as well as its
ability to grow at 42°C. P. aeruginosa is capable of growth in diesel and jet fuel,
where it is known as a hydrocarbon-utilizing microorganism
(or "HUM bug"), causing microbial corrosion. It creates dark gellish
mats sometimes improperly called "algae" because
of their appearance.
Although classified as an aerobic
organism, P. aeruginosa is considered by many as a facultative anaerobe as it is well adapted to
proliferate in conditions of partial or total oxygen depletion. This organism
can achieve anaerobic
growth with nitrate
as a terminal electron acceptor, and in its absence it
is also able to ferment arginine by substrate-level phosphorylation.
Adaptation to microaerobic or anaerobic environments is essential for certain
lifestyles of P. aeruginosa, like during lung infection in cystic
fibrosis patients where thick layers of alginate
surrounding bacterial mucoid cells can limit the diffusion of oxygen.
Staphylococcus aureus literally
"Golden Cluster Seed" and also known as golden staph, is the
most common cause of staph infections. It is a spherical bacterium,
frequently living on the skin or in the nose of a person. Approximately 20–30%
of the general population are "staph carriers". Staphylococcus
aureus can cause a range of illnesses from minor skin infections,
such as pimples,
impetigo
(may also be caused by Streptococcus pyogenes), boils, cellulitis
folliculitis, furuncles, carbuncles, scalded skin syndrome and abscesses, to
life-threatening diseases,
such as pneumonia,
meningitis,
osteomyelitis endocarditis, Toxic shock syndrome (TSS), and septicemia.
Its incidence is from skin, soft tissue, respiratory, bone, joint, endovascular
to wound infections. It is still one of the four most common causes of nosocomial infections, often causing
postsurgical wound infections. Abbreviated to S. aureus or Staph
aureus in medical literature, S. aureus should not be confused with
the similarly named (and also medically relevant) species of the genus Streptococcus.
It is often found in the nostrils of the human body.
S. aureus was discovered in Aberdeen, Scotland in
1880 by the surgeon
Sir Alexander Ogston in pus from surgical
abscesses. Each year some 500,000 patients in American hospitals contract a
staphylococcal infection.
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