MOULD MYCOFLORA OF SOME SAUDI ARABIAN POTATO CHIPSY

Document Type : Research article

Author

Girl's College of Education, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Survey of mycoflora in 35 samples representing 11 kinds of chipsy commonly consumed in Saudi Arabia was evaluated using 1% glucose-, 1% starch, and 10% sodium chloride-Czapek's agar at 28°C. The most contaminated samples were Tasali, Gandour, and Fesh fash with high incidence of mycoflora while samples of Champion, Zizo, Ataib, Authentico, bahlesen picantrie and Jack'n jill were less contaminated with fungi. Twenty-five species representing 11 genera were isolated from the samples tested on the three media used. The most frequently isolated fungi were Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Penicillium chrysogenum, P. corylophilum and Eurotium amstelodami. The starch-decomposing species such as Acremonium strictum, A. ochraceus, A. ustus, Cochliobolus spicifer, Neurospora crassa, Penicillium dauclauxi and P. oxalicum were only isolated on starch agar plates whereas the halophilic or halotolerant Emericella nidulans and Eurodium chevalieri were only encountered when using 1% glucose-Czapek's agar medium supplemented with 10% sodium chloride. The high frequently encountered fungi in the current study were tested for their ability to amylase production. 60% of the isolates could produce this enzyme and the most isolates exhibited high amylolytic activity and the remaining isolates showed moderate or weak production.

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