ABSTRACT

Irvingia gabonensis is one of the most important indigenous fruit trees cultivated and commercialized in Edo State, Nigeria. Irvingia gabonensis seeds are economically useful and valuable due to the fact that they have both health and medicinal benefits. However the seeds of Irvingia are susceptible to post-harvest spoilage fungi which drastically affect the sales and consumption of the seeds. This study was carried out in order to isolate and identify the various fungi associated with Irvingia gabonensis seeds sold in different markets in Benin City (Oba, Uselu and New Benin Markets). Commercially available Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) served as the general purpose culture media, which was used in the preparation of pure cultures. The cotyledons and the testa were examined. Nine different fungi were isolated from this study; Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. oryzae, A. tubingensis, A. unguis, Colletotrichum sp, Rhizopus stolonifer, Rhizopus solani and Mucor sp. Aspergillus sp was the most prevalent as it was present in all the samples. This study showed that, the Irvingia gabonensis seeds sold in these three markets within Benin City were contaminated by several post-harvest fungi and one of these fungi isolated was Aspergillus flavus which has the capacity to produce aflatoxins. Therefore, consumption of these seeds puts the consumers at risk.