Antibacterial and antifungal effect of moringa (Moringa oleifera) seedmeal on marinated smoked African mud catfish (Clarias gariepinus)

Abstract

The study assessed the antibacterial and antifungal effect of Moringa oleifera seed marinade on smoked Clarias gariepinus stored at ambient temperature for 15 days. Sixty C. gariepinus (15 kg) were gutted, washed, and randomly assigned in triplicate to five treatments containing 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 g/kg M. oleifera seedmeal in 3.67 g/kg brine solution for 2 hr and later hot smoked for 24 hr. After smoking, the fishes were allowed to cool and packed separately in a transparent Ziploc polythene bag arranged in a box and kept at room temperature. Microbial load and diversity were conducted in the laboratory at 5 days intervals. The fungi isolated were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Alternaria alternata, Penicillium citrinium, Neurospora crassa, and Rhizopus stolonifer while Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp., Proteus spp., Streptococcus spp., and Bacillus spp. were the identified bacteria. The optimum effective concentration of moringa seed marinade that acts as anti‐bacteria was found best to be 11.2 g/kg of fish moringa marinade. While 12.08 g/kg exhibited the highest anti‐yeast effect in C. gariepinus and 10.6 g/kg serves as antifungi. Thus, moringa seed marinade is safe to use as a natural edible food preservative that can protect smoked dried catfish from microbial spoilage.

Research on Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) in Africa

“…Processed products of moringa include leaf powder [ 114 , 286 , 329 , 399 ], seed oil [ 108 , 157 , 278 , 319 , 390 ], seed cake [ 162 , 167 , 306 ], seed powder [ 116 , 128 , 215 , 246 ], and essential oils from leaves [ 251 ]. Further studies dealt with the use of moringa as an ingredient in different processed foods, e.g., smoked African mud catfish [ 288 ], chilled meat [ 165 ], and maize chips [ 325 ]. Moringa has also been used to improve the conservation of some perishable products such as sweet oranges [ 307 ].…”