Fungal Contamination Of few Common Stored herbal Fruit Samples

Abstract

Abstract The levels of fungal contamination were analyzed in 44 stored dried fruit samples of Emblica officinalis (Alma), Terminalia bellirica (Baheda) and Treminalia chebula (Haritiki), randomly collected from various retailers from Gwalior city (India). As a result of mycological examination, 97.77% of the total samples examined, found to be contaminated with different fungi. A total of 12 different fungal species were isolated from all the three types of fruit samples of Emblica officinalis, Terminalia bellirica and Terminalia chebula . The predominant mycoflora obtained was distributed in five different genera comprised of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria, Rhizopus and Syncephalastrum. The Aspergillus (71.95%) was observed as the most dominant genera recovered followed by Penicillium (15.44%), Rhizopus (9.51%) , Alternaria (1.67%) and Syncephalastrum(1.41%). Most of the identified fungal species like Aspergillus, Penicillium and Alternaria are reported to have ability to produce mycotoxins like aflatoxins, ochratoxins, citrinine and alternaria toxins. The presence of a wide range of storage fungi indicates that the mould probably infects the crude herbal drugs during harvesting and post harvesting processing i.e. mainly during drying, storing, transportation and processing. On the basis of present investigations, it may be concluded that the contamination of raw materials is alarming, as these raw materials needs thorough