Microbial Deterioration of Tomato Fruit ( Lycopersicon esculentum ) Sold in Three Popular Markets in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

T O Agbabiaka

doi:10.53704/fujnas.v4i1.54

Abstract

The economic loss as a result of spoilage and proliferation of microorganisms on tomato fruits with the possible health risks were the justification for this study. One hundred and fifty tomato fruit samples in different stages of spoilage from three different markets in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria were collected within five weeks and the effect of moisture content on each sample and resulting microflora examined. The pH of the samples ranged from 4.90 - 5.40, while the moisture content ranged from 89.10% - 90.70%. The bacteria counts ranged from 4.00 x 106 - 7.50 x 106 cfu/ml, while the fungal counts ranged from 1.60 x 106 - 3.50 x 106 cfu/ml. A total number of sixteen bacteria and eleven fungi including yeasts were associated with the samples. The bacterial isolates included Aeromonas veronii , Bacillus sp., Neisseria sp., Coryne bacterium renale, Pseudomonas fluorescens , Micrococcus varian s , Moraxella sp., Bacillus polymyxa, Aeromonas hydrophila , Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus megaterium , Corynebacterium ulcerans , Vibrio sp., Proteus mirabilis , Corynebacterium xerosis , and Bacillus brevis while the fungal isolates included Alternaria sp., Botrytis sp., Candida albicans , Candida guilliermondii , Candidatropicalis , Chrysosporium tropicum , Curvularia sp., Doratomyces microsporus , Geotrichum candidum , Saccharomyces cerevisiae , and Rhizopus stolonifer . The high moisture content of the tomato samples provides an enabling environment for proliferation of the microbial load and hence its spoilage and potential to become health risk to human beings.

Highlights

IntroductionTomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is one of the world’s most important vegetable crops with a current world wide fresh weight production of 80 million tons from a cropped area of about 3 million hectare (Fatih et al, 2005)
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is one of the world’s most important vegetable crops with a current world wide fresh weight production of 80 million tons from a cropped area of about 3 million hectare (Fatih et al, 2005).It has its origin in Western South America and Central America
Mean followed by the same letter are not significantly different at α = 5% based on Duncan Multiple test Figure 1: Mean of pH of tomato fruits in three markets in Ilorin, Nigeria

Summary

Introduction

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is one of the world’s most important vegetable crops with a current world wide fresh weight production of 80 million tons from a cropped area of about 3 million hectare (Fatih et al, 2005). It has its origin in Western South America and Central America. 2008).The fruit contributes to a healthy, well disease incidence increases with heavy rainfall balanced diet. It is rich in vitamins, minerals, (Iannotti, 2009)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion