BACTERIA ASSOCIATED WITH KOLA NUT (Cola nitida) FROM SELECTED MARKETS IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, BENIN CITY, EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

Ready-to-eat foods (RTEs) are foods that do not require further processing or preparations before consumption which include some vegetables, fruits and nuts. They are a special dietary source of nutrients, vitamins and fibre for humans and are thus vital for health and wellbeing. Garcinia kola is one traditional medicinal plant that is an evergreen plant found in the equatorial forest of Sub-Saharan Africa where it grows wild. The plant is also known as “male kola” because of its claimed aphrodisiac activity. Garcinia kola seeds form a major part of the herbal preparation used for the treatment of various respiratory tract diseases including asthma. Bacterial colonization on food samples is the first line of disease establishment.  In this study, bacterial contamination of Kola nuts were evaluated. The kola nuts used in this study showed some considerably number of bacteria contaminants which may have occured due to environmental exposure. The result obtained from this study, the total heterotrophic bacterial count obtained ranged from 4.578031 log₁₀ cfu/g to 4.903089 log₁₀ cfu/g. Bacterial contamination of kola nut becomes possible especially when they are hawked in open air thereby accelerating the rate of contamination via aerosols if not properly covered. On the other hand, lack of personal hygiene practices by these food vendors could serves as risk factors which could lead to cross contamination of such food sample. In this present study, the bacterial isolates obtained were Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enterica, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia marcescens.. The isolates were resistant to the antibiotics namely methronidazole,colistin,clindamycin and erythromycin but were susceptible to gentamicin and ciprofloxacin. Proper hygiene from the vendor should be put into consideration.