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ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to evaluate the microbiological and proximate analysis of diseased and healthy tomato fruits (Lycopersicum esculentum). Standard microbiological and analytical methods were used to determine the total heterotrophic bacterial and fungal count of healthy and diseased tomato samples obtained from two locations in Benin City. The isolated bacteria were characterized and identified using cultural and biochemical means from the samples. The proximate parameters such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, fibres and ash contents were evaluated using standard methods. The results revealed that the bacterial count ranged from 7.13 ±0.11 x 104cfu/g in Uselu market to 4.25 ±0.96 x 104cfu/g in Osa market. There was however, a reduction in the fungal count compared to bacterial count. The mean fungal count ranged between 0.04 ±0.01 x 104cfu/g to 0.55 ±0.12 x 104cfu/g. However, the number of heterotrophic bacteria and total fungal count was drastically reduced in the good tomato samples analyzed in the study. It was shown that Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella enteritidis were the identified bacterial isolates from tomato samples in the study. It was evident that healthy samples of Lycopersicum esculentum has higher values of moisture content (46.99±1.11) compared to diseased samples (41.14±1.46). More so, there were also higher values for other proximate parameters such as lipids (2.37±0.71), crude fibre (11.49±2.89), crude protein (7.61±0.75) and ash (2.01±0.29) compared to diseased samples with respective values of 1.12±0.37 (lipids), 11.10±0.21 (crude fibre), 5.29±0.33 (crude protein) and 1.29±0.11 (ash). Although, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in certain of the proximate parameters such as lipids, crude fibre, ash and carbohydrates.
