EFFECT OF ISOLATED FUNGI ASSOCIATED WITH FRESHLY HARVESTED AND MARKETED COCONUT WATER ON THE FREE FATTY ACID CONTENT AND LIPOPHILIC ABILITY OF VIRGIN COCOS NUCIFERA OIL

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have demonstrated that freshly harvested coconuts can possess rotten meat as a result of endophytic microorganisms contamination even when the husk is intact. In this research, the microorganisms was thought to finds its way into the coconut through the endosperm germination spores. The study into the microbial quality of coconut water and its impact on the extracted  virgin coconut oil is aimed towards determining the microbial quality of freshly harvested and marketed coconut water and also assess the effect of the isolated fungi on the Free Fatty Acid Content and Lipophilic ability on the extracted coconut oil. Fungi was isolated using the pour plate techniques and the morphological characteristiics of the associated fungi were determined using its macroscopic and microscopic characteristics, the results revealed the presence of Aspergellius spp (A. niger, A. fumigatus, A. tamari ,A. flavus) Lasidiopodia and Penicillium spp. samples. The results also showed that the genus Aspergillus and Penicillium was most dominant and diverse among the identified fugal isolates. Penicillium sp. was found to be more prevalent in all the samples with percentage occurrences of 49%, 60% and 72% in samples obtained from Olokun, Iguosa and New Benin markets respectively while Lasidiopodia sp. had the lowest percentage occurrence of 3% from the samples obtained from Iguosa market. Freshly harvested coconut water had no microbial growth. Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) was extracted from the coconut samples, Using analytical methods, described by Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC), Free Fatty Acid content and Lipophilic ability was measured and recorded for 20days at 5 days interval. Results of the effect of the different fungal isolates on the lipophilic components of the coconut oil revealed that Aspergillus niger have the highest lipophilic ability of 1.98cm³ at day 15 compared to Penicillium sp. which have the highest lipophilic ability of 1.63 cm³ at day 5, 10 and 15, While free fatty acids (FFA) components of the coconut oil showed that the different fungal isolates had slow deteriorative effect on the coconut oil with A. niger having the highest FFA production of 1.8% at the fifth day of the experiment compared to Lasidopodia sp. which had 0.4% at day and 0.2% at days 5, 10 and 15. The findings from this study have shown that freshly harvested coconut water is free from fungal contamination when compared to marketed coconut water also the isolated fungi have the ability to cause deteriorative effect on the chemical FFA and physical Lipophilic ability of Virgin Coconut Oil which in turn affects the degradation, quality and shelf life of VCO.