Abstract
Spices are any pungent, aromatic plant substances used to flavor food or beverages. Plant foods and agricultural commodities including spices are increasingly subjected to adulteration by design or default. This study aimed to compare home grinded spices against ready locally prepared ones in Libyan market. Chosen spices were compared according to their percentage of yield, organoleptic features, and pharmacognostic parameters as macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, pH measurement, microbial contamination (total viable count and microbial identification), and thin layer chromatography (TLC) chromatogram and diphenyl picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity. From the results, the ready prepared samples showed to have higher percentage of yield compared to home prepared ones. There were no difference in organoleptic test results, macroscopic and microscopic characteristics and pH test results. Bacteria in spices samples were too many to count (TMTC) in most samples, however thyme, rosemary and cinnamon showed better results. The isolated bacteria were identified as Salmonella, Shigella and E. coli species. TLC chromatogram and DPPH scavenging activity test also showed no difference in both sample groups. All these tests indicates that the samples obtained from market as grinded powder and the same samples of spices that was brought as a raw materials and grinded at home had the same characteristics, which indicated that they are of the same quality which not necessary to be a good one. arabic 12 English 75