Potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) is propagated vegetatively using the tuber because it rarely survives from the true seed. Under normal conditions, potatoes left in the air or dry soil will produce sprouts but not roots. Large and vigorous sprouts are indicators of rapid emergence and relatively early maturity.
The antagonistic properties of indigenous microflora from cassava starch, flour and grated cassava were investigated using the conventional streak, novel ring and well diffusion methods. Antagonism was measured by zone of inhibition between the fungal plug and bacterial streak/ring. Bacillus species were more effective to inhibit the growth of Aspergillus niger, A. fumigatus, Fusarium moniliforme and Rhizoctonia sp. Pseudomonas fluorescens, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces sp. inhibited the growth of A. niger, A. flavus and F. moniliforme. There were considerable variations in inhibitory activity. The zone of inhibition was more apparent in the novel ring method. Percentage inhibition increased to 78% in the Ring method and 62% in streak method after 168 h of incubation. Lactobacillus brevis, L. acidophilus and Bacillus subtilis inhibited the growth of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Inhibition of the pathogenic microorganisms was probably due to the production of organic acids and bacteriocins. Key words: Cassava product microflora, antagonism, bacteriocins, organic acids.
Aim:The microbial types, occurrence, loads and interactions were studied during the production of a Nigerian fermented beverage, 'Agadagidi', from overripe plantains.
This project aimed at isolating, identifying and determining the level of occurrence of staphylococci in cooked foods,. “Amala”, “fufu”, “rice”, “beans”, “ewedu”, stew and hand-rinse water were collected from restaurants in the eleven Local Government Areas (LGA) of Ibadan. Staphylococci were isolated, enumerated and characterized using standard pour plating, culturing and biochemical test methods. Nine different species of Staphylococcus were identified as S. aureus, S. hyicus, S. epidermidis, S. intermidius, S. saprophyticus, S. arrieta, S. carnosi, S. haemolyticus and S. schleifer . In all the samples, Staphylococcusaureus occurred in 32 times, while S. Schleifer,S. hyicus, S. epidermidis, S. intermidius, S. saprophyticus, S. arrieta, S. carnosi and S. haemolyticus occurred in 1, 11, 14, 9, 4, 4, 2 and 8 times respectively. Among the food samples, staphylococcal load was highest (9.8 x 10 2 cfu/ml) in “fufu” from Akinyele LGA. In contrast, “ewedu” from Akinyele LGA showed the lowest population (1.2 x 10 2 cfu/ml) of staphylococci. KEYWORDS: Ibadan Local Government Areas, Staphylococci, Population, Occurrence and Identification.
Aims: This study examined the prevalence of filamentous fungi in Onyearugbulem abattoir wastewater samples in Akure, Nigeria.
Methodology: The abattoir’s water source, 5 m away from animal washings, the incinerator, 10 m upstream, 10 m downstream and 100 m downstream were sampled between November 2014 and October 2015 for aerobic and anaerobic fungal counts using standard recommended procedures. Fungal isolates were identified macroscopically and microscopically.
Results: The results showed that the water source had the lowest fungal count (1.4x103 sfu/ml in November and 2.0x102 sfu/ml in February for aerobic and anaerobic counts respectively) throughout the sampling period unlike the incinerator which had the highest fungal count (5.2x103 sfu/ml in August and 5.5x103 sfu/ml in July for aerobic and anaerobic counts respectively). The aerobic fungal count was lower than the anaerobic fungal count in all the six (6) sampling points except the abattoir water source. The trendline of the data collected also showed a significant increase (p≤0.05) of the fungal counts in the wet season as compared to the dry season. The fungi isolated are Rhizopus spp., Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium oxysporium and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Conclusion: This work indicated a high dominance of fungi in water bodies associated with the slaughterhouse and therefore warns against environmental and health hazards associated with these microorganisms.
The organic phase of a wide spectrum, antimycotic and diffusable toxin from Erwinia herbicola showed a highly significant inhibitory activity against Pyricularia oryzae spores in spore well bioassay. Germ tube lengths were inhibited more in wells containing 5 microliters equivalent of bacterial toxin than 1 microliter. No significant difference between the germ tube in an equal mixture of Dimethyl sulphoxide: ethanol and controls. Thin layer chromatography using the chloroform extraction of the organic phase showed a significant antagonism on Cladosporium cucumerinum. The retardation factor values for inhibitory zones in solvent 1 were 0.07 for lower spot and 0.26 for upper spot.