Controlled temperature on the microflora of fermented bottle gourd seed

Abstract

Effect of controlled temperature on microflora of fermented Bottle Gourd Seeds (BGS) as well as Melon Seeds (MES) was studied. De-hulled seeds were boiled for 6 h and fermented at 28°C, 35°C and 42°C for 96 h. The microbial flora of the fermented BGS and MES were determined with respects to seed type, fermentation time and fermentation temperature. The microorganisms isolated from the fermented samples included; Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Corynebacterium sp, and some varieties of fungi. The viable bacterial count for both the BGS and MES were within the range of 5 x 108 cfu/g and 36 x 108 cfu/g between zero and ninety-six hours. Bacillus subtilis was the major fermenting organism since it was seen at the three temperatures and throughout the fermentation period for all the samples. The absence of other fermenting organisms in some of the samples indicates that these substrates (BGS and MES) differ slightly in their ability to sustain the growth of different species of microorganisms probably due to the differences in their overall composition. The result shows that when the factors that affect the microflora of fermentation are controlled, safe good quality ogiri can be produced from BGS.