ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIAL PATHOGENS IN FRESH VEGETABLES AVAILABLE TO LOCAL CONSUMERS IN NAROWAL CITY, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Vegetables are a wonderful source of proteins, nutrients, dietary fibers, carbohydrates, and vitamins. They can help with digestive system inflammation, and maintained of blood pressure, skin glowing, and eye protection. Vegetables are full of cancer-fighting antioxidants and nutrients. They are abundant in phytochemicals and antioxidants, which may help the immune system in reducing chronic inflammation. In the present study, five different type of vegetables were taken as samples i.e., Potato, green chili, carrot, ladyfinger and Tomato were collected from main market of Narowal. Five samples of each vegetable product was collected. Ten grams of each vegetable sample was weighed and then homogenized in 90ml saline solution. Serial dilutions of samples were made up to 10-5 with sterile normal saline Gram positive and gramnegative bacteria were isolated by the using gram staining procedure. Bacterial identification was taken place by using different biochemical tests. Antibiotic resistance was checked by disk diffusion method on Muller-Hinton agar medium by using antibiotic disks. Different types of bacteria were identified in collected samples, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Coagulase negative staphylococcus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcesscens. The gram-negative bacteria were Klebsiellaa and Escherichia coli while gram-positive in nature were Serratia marcesscens, Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, epridermidis, Coagulase negative staphylococcus. In this study, all samples of vegetables were contaminated with bacteria. The highest microbial load (9.0 X 105CFU/ml) was shown in tomato while the lowest microbial load (1.0 X 106 CFU/ml) was shown in Carrot. Ladyfinger showed the lowest significance in the viable bacterial count and green chili showed a highly significant viable bacterial count. Applied different types of disks and checked the resistivity and sustainability of isolated organisms. It was concluded that the bacterial load was highest in local market vegetable samples. It indicates that the hygienic conditions in these markets are not sufficient. Therefore, proper vegetable handling is needed the foodborne diseases and other infections in humans.