Evaluation of quality of hydrogen peroxide-based antiseptic solutions available in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Background: Hydrogen peroxide solutions of lowconcentrations are important antiseptics anddeodorants used in hospitals and as home-remedies. The preparations have the disadvan-tage of being unstable when exposed tosunlight and when stored for a long time. Theydecompose slowly, releasing oxygen and waterthus decreasing the available hydrogen peroxidefor antimicrobial action.Objective: To assess the quality of hydrogenperoxide solution-based antiseptics available inDar es Salaam.Methodology: One hundred and sixty-five sam-ples were collected at random from pharmaciesand medical stores, and analysed. One hundredand forty samples were hydrogen peroxide solu-tions intended for wound cleansing and 25 sam-ples were eardrops. Among these samples, 116were from manufacturer A, 24 from manufacturerB and 25 samples of eardrops were from manu-facturer C.Results: Eighteen (26%) of the samples frommedical stores failed to meet specifications. Ofthe 70 samples from pharmacies, 20 (29%) failedto meet the BP 2005 specifications. All the 25samples of eardrops failed to comply with speci-fications. The average hydrogen peroxide con-tents (±SD) of the samples from medical storesand pharmacies were 6.6±0.6%,6.8±0.4% w⁄vrespectively. The difference was statistically sig-nificant (P