Effects of <i>Moringa oleifera</i> Leaves and Seeds Extracts against Food Spoilage Fungi

Abstract

Fungal foodborne diseases pose serious public health problems and cause significant loss of the world’s food stock as a result of toxic contamination. Hence the need to find solutions to foodborne fungal contaminants. This study investigated the antifungal and phytochemical properties of Moringa oleifera leaves and seeds using various extraction solvents (acetone, water, ethanol and methanol). Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus niger isolated from food samples were used as test organisms. The Agar Well Diffusion method was used to determine the antifungal activities of Moringa oleifera leave and seed extracts, while standard phytochemical tests were used to analyze for the phytochemicals. Moringa oleifera leave and seed extracts showed the presence of glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, phenols and hydrolysable tannins after the chemical test. At 100 mg/ml for Methanol extract, the leaves gave wider zones of inhibition (18.33 mm against A. flavus and 17.17 mm against A. niger ) than the seed extract (16.50 mm against A. flavus and 16.33 mm against A. niger ) for all test organism. The activity of the extracts were however lower than Sodium benzoate (33 mm at 100 mg/ml), as standard. The Minimum Inhibition Concentration of the plant extracts was most active at 25 mg/ml. Moringa oleifera leaves and seeds extracts may serve as natural antifungals for controlling growth of food spoilage fungi, and therefore may be used as a bio-preservative agent for prolonging the shelf-life of food products.