The discovery of microbial contamination in CHMs is common as microbes can be easily introduced anytime during the cultivation and preparation of CHMs.
Thus to prevent microbial contaminants, CHMs should be handled under strict regulations and packaged using clean packaging materials.
In our study, Bacillus spp. was the most commonly recovered contaminant compared to Clostridium and Staphylococcus spp.
This agrees with literatures.Our focus on Bacillus was because this endospore-forming bacterium was known to produce pre-formed toxins which could cause foodborne illness. Interestingly, no Bacillus spp. were recovered from the boiled decoctions in this
study, suggesting that boiled decoctions were generally icines with reportedly 48% of American ginseng root samples harbouring 105cfu of Aspergillus/g sample21 and
was detected in seeds of American ginseng as well.25Aspergillus can continue to spread during storage if the CHMs are not dried properly,22 thus it is crucial to process
CHMs carefully.