PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS AND ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITIES ON LEAF EXTRACT OF JULIE MANGO CULTIVAR AGAINST SELECTED CLINICAL ISOLATES

Abstract

The source of a large outbreak of food borne disease caused by contaminated food (dried fish) has been traced to Nigeria. Although the microbiological quality of dry fish sampled was similar to that found in markets from developed countries, the presence of pathogens causes a risk of infection for consumers. There are several ways in which dried fish processing and consumption can be affected by pollution as result of environmental consequences. Environmental Air pollution is detrimental effect of fish processing. Each of these will be considered in turn in this work. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of air pollution in food stuff such as dried fish.Fish processing environment is very favorable for the growth of microorganisms and highlights a potential risk associated with microbial hazards. The present study investigated the growth behavior of aerobic bacteria, yeasts and molds, and bacterial pathogens or surrogate (Listeria monocytogenes and Clostridium sporogeneses) on thawed and fresh catfish fillets during refrigerated storage (5°C - 7°C). Thawed and fresh fillets were respectively inoculated with L. monocytogenes and C. sporogeneses’, and packaged in LDPE bags. In uninoculated catfish, the populations of aerobic bacteria, and yeasts and molds increased significantly (P < 0.05) after 24 h of storage. The acceptable microbial limit was exceeded by aerobic bacteria (7.446 log CFU/g) after 4 days, and yeasts and molds (2.97 log CFU/g) after 3 days of refrigerated storage. Listeria population increased by 1.51 log CFU/g on thawed catfish after 6 days of storage. However, there was no significant increase in growth of C. sporogeneses’ vegetative cells on fresh catfish fillets. These results indicated that the microbiological quality of refrigerated thawed catfish would become unacceptable within 3 - 4 days. Our results also implied that environmental pathogens such as L. monocytogenes and Clostridium sp. can survive on catfish fillets for extended periods during refrigerated storage