Investigation of heavy metal contamination and microbiological quality of massage oils sold in Turkey

In the thesis research, it was determined that the heavy metal content (arsenic, lithium, aluminum, chromium, iron, copper, zinc, silver, cadmium, mercury, lead) of 10 ISO9001 standard aromatic massage oils, belonging to different companies and containing different extracts, selected by random sampling method and determination of microbiological contamination levels. ICP-MS technique was used to determine the levels of selected heavy metals in massage oil samples. In order to determine microbiological contamination, aerobic mesophyll general bacteria, yeast and mold count, Enterobacteriaceae, coliform bacteria count, Escherichia coli count, Staphylococcus-Micrococcus presence analyzes were performed. In the study carried out, the total number of Mesophilic Aerobic Bacteria in massage oil samples was 3.00 log cfu/ml in sample 1,in example 4, 3.60 log cfu/ml, in example 5, 2.78 log cfu/ml, it was determined as 3.60 log cfu/ml in sample 6 and 2.78 log cfu/ml in sample 7. The number of Enterobacteriaceae was determined as 2.3 log cfu/ml in sample 4 and 2.60 log cfu/ml in sample 5. Staphylococcus / Micrococcus count, in example 1, 2.90 log cfu/ml, in example 4, 3.30 log cfu/ml, in example 5, 2.30 log cfu/ml, in example 6, 2.60 log cfu/ml and in Example 7, it was determined as 2.68 log cfu/ml. Yeast/Mold, Coliform Bacteria, E. Coli were not detected in other analyzed products. In heavy metal analysis; Arsenic could not be detected in any sample in the measurements performed on massage oil samples. 2.19 ppb of lithium was detected in sample 1, 10,947 ppb in sample 2, 34,336 ppb in sample 6 and 1,303 ppb in sample 8. Aluminum was determined as 225.27 ppb only in sample 6; chrome, 2026,398 ppb in example 1, in example 4, 15,533 ppb, in example 5, 149,662 ppb, in example 6, 31,399 ppb, in example 8, 29,275 ppb, 6,197 ppb in sample 9 and in the 10th sample, it was determined as 19,169 ppb. Iron was only detected as 274547.26 ppb in sample 2 and 3371.992 ppb in sample 5. Zinc only, as 1039.58 ppb in sample 2 and 507.066 ppb in sample 6; silver was determined as 1,811 ppb in sample 6. Cadmium was measured as 5,373 ppb in sample 1 and 6,226 ppb in sample 2; mercury was found to be 1714,286 ppb in sample 1, 1714,286 ppb in sample 5, 1120.69 ppb in sample 6, and 646.552 ppb in sample 10. Lead was found to be 873,863 ppb only in sample 4. While some heavy metals have a standard established by the Turkish Medicines Agency, a standard has not been reported for others. When the research findings are evaluated according to the standard parameters, it is seen that the samples comply with the standards in some parameters, do not comply with the standards in some parameters, and that there are samples that are not suitable for the standards in terms of highly toxic and circulating heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, and mercury above the standards. These results suggest that it will be important to monitor the production and marketing processes of the products more carefully and to review the existing standards, as massage oils may pose a public health problem.