الفهرس 
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Abstract
According to WHO the goal of health for all cannot be achieved without herbal medicine, medicinal herbs have a long history of use and still make an important part of traditional medicine. Thus, medicinal plants and herbal products must be safe for the consumer.
The concern over quality of these products is mainly due to their potential contamination, considering their natural origin. Practices used in harvesting, handling, storage, production and distribution make medicinal plants subject to contamination by various fungi, which may be responsible for spoilage and production of mycotoxins.
This study aimed to throw light on the safety of selected medicinal herbal samples for direct human use; also investigation of mycological quality is another target of this study.
This study was carried out on a total of 90 medicinal herbal samples. 65 unpacked in addition, 25 packed samples of 5 commercial brands produced in Egypt and were designated A, B, C, D and E (5 samples each) samples were randomly collected from six districts in Alexandria (El-Amreya, El-Gomrok, Gharb(west), Wasat(middle) , Shark(East) and El-montazah).
Samples were collected in clean labeled plastic bags and stored at -20°C to arrest any mycotoxins formation before analysis.
Each sample was accompanied by a sheet including: name, sampling date, sampling site, code number, weight and brand. All samples were analyzed by the following procedures:
1. Measurement of Aflatoxins B1 by ELISA.
2. Investigation of fungal contamination.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows:
1. Out of the 65 examined unpacked samples; 41 (63.1%) had acceptable AFB1levels and 24 (36.9%) had unacceptable AFB1levels.
2. Out of the 25 examined packed medicinal herbal samples; 5 (20%) had acceptable AFB1levels and 20(80%) had unacceptable AFB1levels.
3. Mint samples revealed the highest unacceptable levels of AFB1, while Anise samples revealed the lowest.
4. All brands represented high percentage of unacceptable levels of AFB1 (80%), packed samples had a wide variation of unacceptable AFB1 levels ranged from 5.3 to 157 µg/ kg within different brands and even within the same brand.
5. Majority of samples were contaminated with fungi representing 98% of total examined medicinal herbal samples; 82 (91%) were with colony count unacceptable according to monograph of US pharmacopeia.
6. The genus Aspergillus was the most dominant fungal genus revealed from examined samples.
7. As.niger and As.flavus strains were the most prevalent strains.
8. The presence of unacceptable AFB1 levels in medicinal herbal samples does not mean directly the presence of its producing fungi and vise versa.
It can be concluded from this study that:
1. Packed medicinal herbal samples were not found to be superior to unpacked medicinal herbal samples as regards levels of AFB1contamination; on the contrary unpacked medicinal herbal samples was considered to be relatively of better quality.
2. According ECR and TFC Standards, Mint samples were the highest AFB1 unacceptable levels.
3. Aspergillus genus was the most predominant of fungal isolates
4. Measurement of AFB1 levels in correlation with AFB1 producing fungi did not yield direct positive relation ship.