Abstract:
Fruits and vegetables play a vital role in improving the health of people worldwide. The crops suffer considerable losses because of bacterial soft rot. The aim of this study was to survey the level of incidence of bacterial soft rot disease in five produces of horticulture namely Banana, Orange, Mango, Potato and Tomato, in central markets of Khartoum State and to identify the bacterium associated with this disease and to explore the antibacterial potentials of some higher plants aqueous crude extract against the bacterium under in vitro. The Survey revealed that the bacterial soft rot disease is prevalent in the five fruits and vegetables with varied incidence in each produce. The disease was significantly high in Tomatoes (9.3%) fallowed by Banana (6%). The lowest incidence was in Potatoes (3.0%). Upon isolation on NA bacterium, all the isolates of causal bacterium that readily macerated the host tissue were found to be Erwinia carotovora. Studies on antibacterial activity of the three plants extracts against bacterium indicated that all extracts at all concentrations exhibited varying degrees of inhibition against Erwinia carotovora with zones of inhibition ranging from 27.4% to 100%. Among plants extracts, Damas showed more pronounced inhibitory effects on the growth of the bacterium where it completely inhibited its growth compared to control. Neem at 30% and 40% and Argel at 40% concentrations also demonstrated significantly high zone of inhibition 100%, 99.3% and 97.4% respectively. The results also indicated that was a variation in the potency of the plant extracts and their different concentrations as well as in the sensitivity pattern of the test bacterium. The findings of this study are therefore important as they highlighted the need for adhering to effective measures that aim at reducing Erwinia soft rot incidence in fruits and vegetables especially during storage and transit. Also, the potentials of the plant extracts to serve as possible bio-control and antimicrobial agents for bacterial soft rot of fruits and vegetables were demonstrated in this study.
