New record on the association of fungi with the market fruits of Moringa oliefera Lam. - A highly valued medicinal plant

摘要

Moringa (Moringa oliefera Lam.) plant is a fast-growing multipurpose tree species growing throughout the world. They are used as human food, animal feed, treatments of many different human diseases, environment and industry etc. A survey on the microbial load was performed with the fruits collected from super market at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The collected fruits were incubated in moist chamber under laboratory conditions at 20 - 30 0 C for 7 - 15 days. The associated fungi were isolated in PDA medium and identified. The recorded fungi are: Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, Alternaria alternata; Fusarium oxysporum, Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizopus stolonifer. The pathogenicity test was performed with the isolated fungi in detached fruits under laboratory conditions. A. alternata, F. oxysporum and M. phaseolina were proved to be pathogenic. As the fruits are usually used as vegetable and seeds are used as raw materials for oil production, so the quality of raw materials must be thoroughly monitored.