This document discusses adulteration and deterioration of crude drugs. It defines adulteration as substituting the original crude drug partially or wholly with inferior substances that lack the chemical constituents or pharmacological properties. There are different types of adulteration including inferiority, spoilage, deterioration, admixture, sophistication, and substitution. Adulteration can occur deliberately for commercial profit or inadvertently due to confusion, lack of knowledge, or careless collection and storage. Adulteration is evaluated using morphological, microscopic, chemical, physical, chromatographic, spectrophotometric, and biological tests.

1. PHARMACOGNOSY

2. ADULTERATION & DETERIORATION

3. Contents
1. What is Adulteration?
2. What is an Adulterant ?
3. Types of Adulteration.
3.1.Inferiority
3.2.Spoilage
3.3.Deterioration
3.4.Admixture
3.5.Sophistication.
3.6.Substitution.
4. Reasons for Adulteration.
5. Evaluation of Adulteration.

4. What is Adulteration ?
“Adulteration refers to a process of substituting
original crude drug partly or wholly with seemingly
similar substances which are devoid of chemical
entity or are inferior in their constituents and
pharmacological property.”
OR
“Debasement of crude drug is called as
adulteration.”
OR
“Impairment in the quality of crude drug is termed
as adulteration.”

5. What is an Adulterant ?
“Adulterants are usually sub-standard varieties of a crude
drug or inferior drugs or artificially prepared commodities.”

6. TYPES OF ADULTERATION
 Are Normally Intentional.
 Done Commercially to gain
Profit.
Deliberate
 Are Normally Accidental.
 They can be Naturally
occurring or with the careless
behavior.
In-Deliberate

7. DELIBERATE ADULTERATION
Intentional adulteration may be due to the following
reasons:
 Adulteration using manufactured substances.
 Substitution using inferior commercial varieties.
 Substitution using exhausted drugs.
 Substitution of superficially similar inferior natural substances.
 Adulteration using the vegetative part of the same plant.
 Addition of toxic materials.
 Adulteration of powders.
 Addition of synthetic principles.

8. INDELIBRATE ADULTRATION
Unintentional adulteration may be due to the following
reasons:
 Confusion in vernacular names between indigenous systems of
medicine and local dialects.
 Lack of knowledge about the authentic plant.
 Non-availability of the authentic plant.
 Similarity in morphology and or aroma.
 Careless collection.
 Other unknown reasons.

9. CATEGORIES OF ADULTERATION
Adulteration
Inferiority Spoilage
Deterioration
AdmixtureSophistication
Substitution

10. INFERIORITY
“It is the condition in which substandard drug is
produced naturally, irrespective of the cause e.g.
selection of a herbal specie that contain same active
constituent but lesser in amount.”
 Adulterants resembles the original crude drug
Morphologically, Chemically, Therapeutically
and is cheaper than actual drug.
For Example:
 Indian senna adulterated with Arabian senna.

11. SPOILAGE
“It refers to a process in which the quality or value
of an article has been so impaired and destroyed by
action of fungi and bacteria as to render the article
unfit for human consumption.”
Prevention:
It can be prevented by giving more attention to
process of “Drying & Storage Condition”.
For Example:
1. Vacha and Atvisha.

12. DETERIORATION
“It refers to any impairment in the quality or value of
an article due to some physical processes e.g.
distillation , extraction, aging, moisture, heat,
resulting in destruction of its valuable constituents or
due to insects or microorganisms .”
For Example:
1. Mainly volatile oil containing drugs like Fennel,
Clove, and Coriander are adulterated by this
method.

13. ADMIXTURE
“It refers to addition of one article to another through
accident, ignorance or carelessness. A part of same plant
which is devoid of therapeutic action is mixed.”
For Example:
1. Inclusion of soil and stone pieces in Hing.

14. SOPHISTICATION
“Sophistication means addition of spurious or
inferior material to an article with an intent to
defraud e.g. Addition of wheat flour to powdered
ginger, with enough capsicum to restore or
enhance the pungency and curcuma to maintain
the colour.”
For Example:
1. Addition of wheat flour to powdered ginger,
with enough capsicum to restore the
pungency & curcuma to maintain the colour.

15. SUBSTITUTION
“It is a process in which such adulterants are
used that resemble actual drug in morphology,
chemical constituents and in some cases in
therapeutic efficacy but substandard in nature
and hence cheaper in cost.”
For Example:
1. Capsicum minimum is substituted with
capsicum annuum.

16. REASONS FOR ADULTERATION
Following are the main causes of adulteration:
 Confusion in vernacular names.
 Lack of knowledge about authentic sources.
 Similarity in Morphology.
 Lack of authentic plants.
 Unscientific collection.
 High price of the drug in the market.
 With the intention of enhancing profits.

17. EVALUATION OF ADULTERATION
Adulteration can be evaluated be following the steps given below:
 Morphological or Organoleptic tests
 Microscopic Evaluation
 Chemical Evaluation
 Physical Evaluation
 Chromatography
 Spectrophotometry
 Biological Evaluation