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ABSTRACT
Spices are products from plants seeds, fruits, flowers, roots, leaves or bark that are added to food to improve flavour, taste, colour or act to minimize the rate of rancidity and as preservatives that suppress microbial activities. This study was carried out to investigate the microbiological properties of powdered pepper soup spices sold in Benin City, Edo State. A total of six (6) different spices were purchased from markets in Benin City. Pepper soup spices purchased were Lasor spice (Spice A), Vero Instant spice (Spice B), Delight Food spice (Spice C), IDS Instant pepper soup spice (Spice D), Famous spice (Spice E) and Mr Chef spice (Spice F). Spices were taken to the laboratory for microbial analysis. Bacteria susceptibility was by Kirby Bauer disc diffusion on Mueller Hinton Agar. Table 4.1 revealed that Total heterotrophic bacterial (THB) counts in pepper soup spices assayed on Nutrient agar medium ranged from 11.67±1.86×103 cfu/g - 22.00±2.31×103 cfu/g. Highest and lowest Total heterotrophic bacterial counts was observed in spices A and Spice D respectively. Total heterotrophic bacterial counts in pepper soup spices assayed on MacConkey agar medium ranged from 6.33±1.53×102 cfu/g - 18.00±4.63×102 cfu/g in Table 4.1. Highest and lowest Total heterotrophic bacterial counts was observed in Spices A and E respectively. The Total heterotrophic fungal (THF) counts in pepper soup spices ranged from 13.67±1.86×102 cfu/g - 25.00±1.22×102 cfu/g in Table 4.2. Cultural, morphological and biochemical tests in Table 4.3 revealed bacterial isolates in pepper soup spices include Bacillus spp., Escherichia coli, Enterobacter spp. and Citrobacter spp. Fungal isolates detected were Fusarium spp., Mucor spp., Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. Bacillus spp. was the most distributed bacterial isolate (66.67% frequency) while the least distributed bacteria isolate was Enterobacter spp (16.67% frequency) in Table 4,4. Aspergillus spp and Penicillium spp were the least distributed fungal isolates (33.33% frequency) respectively while the most distributed fungal isolates were Fusarium spp and Mucor spp. (66.67% frequency) in Table 4.6. For Gram positive bacteria isolates, Bacillus cereus2 was observed to exhibit the highest bacterial resistance with a MAR index of 0.8 while Bacillus cereus1 and Bacillus spp exhibited the lowest bacterial resistance with a MAR index of 0.7 respectively. For Gram negative bacteria isolates, Citrobacter spp. was observed to exhibit the highest bacterial resistance with a MAR index of 0.9 while Enterobacter spp exhibited the lowest bacterial resistance with a MAR index of 0.5 in Table 4.7. Highest activity of chitosan was revealed on Bacillus cereus1 treated with 50mg/ml of chitosan extract producing zones of inhibition of 16mm respectively in Table 4.8. Findings from this study suggests the need for strict hygienic measures and standard processing techniques to be followed to ensure that spices used by consumers do not compromise their health status.
