Microbiological Studies of Vegetable Leaves Sold in Elele Market, Rivers-State, Nigeria

The present study was carried out to evaluate some vegetable leaves sold in Elele markets for human consumption by investigating whether they harbour bacteria. Out of 300 samples examined, 218 (72.6%) harboured bacterial isolates. Depending on the types of vegetable leaves analysed, water leaves recorded the highest frequency of infected samples (16.0%), following by pumpkin leaves (15.0%), while bitter leaves had the lowest by (13.3%). Species of bacteria isolated were: Escherichia coli (29.3%), Staphylococcs aureus (22.9%), Enterobacter aerogenes (18.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8.2%), Shigella species (5.5%), Alcaligenes feacalis (4.6%), Micrococcus species (3.7%) and Salmonella species (2.1%). All samples of water leaves, pumpkin leaves and green leaves harboured ten different bacterial species, with water leaves samples recording the highest occurrence of Escherichia coli (39.6%), Staphylococcus aureus (16.8%), Enterobacter aerogenes (15.4%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (11.4%), followed by pumpkin leaves with Escherichia coli (29.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (18.1%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (12.9%). In contrast, Citrobacter species, Micrococcus species, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella species could not be isolated from bitter leaves samples. The results of antibiotic susceptibility showed that Gram negative bacteria were highly sensitive (58.5-100%) to ofloxacin, (55.6-100%) to ciprofloxacin, while most of them were less sensitive (0.0-22.7%) to tetracycline. Gram positive bacteria had a susceptibility (90.9-100%) to pefloxacin, (81.8-100%) to ciprofloxacin and Bacillus cereus recorded the least susceptibility (9.1%) to erythromycin. Findings in this study still indicate poor handling practices and risks presented to the consumers at point-of-sale. There is need to educate the vendors and consumers on good sanitary practices during processing, display and sale of vegetables and also dangers associated with misuse of antibiotics. Quinolones could be the drugs of choice in the treatment of bacteria associated with food-borne infection.

Author(s): Kemajou TS, Awemu GA, Digban KA, Oshoman CE, Ekundayo OI and Ajugwo AO

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