Food and Beverages

This is the first study of post-harvest mycoflora of fruits from Ad Darb region of Jizan province. A total number of fourteen samples of fruits from the local markets of the place with post-harvest spoilage fungi were collected and screened for mycoflora during March 2015 to February 2017. The mycoflora was cultured on Potato Dextrose Agar plates and Czapek Dox agar plates. A qualitative and quantitative assessment of mycoflora was carried out by the fungal cultures on the petri plates and the slides were identified by microscopic and macroscopic characteristics. A total of 64 fungal isolates represented by 9 fungal

genera were isolated from the samples belonging to the three classes of fungi i.e. Oomycetes, Zygomycetes and Ascomycetes.The post-harvest mycoflora was represented by Pythium, Rhizopus, Saccharomyces sp., Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Dresclera, Fusarium, Penicillium and Sphearotheca. The most predominant genera were Aspergillus followed by Fusarium and Penicillium. % Disease Incidence ranged from 20%-30%. The information on the diverse groups of post-harvest mycoflora can help in effective management and minimization of post-harvest economic losses. Apart from the economic losses the post-harvest mycoflora are pathogenic. Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium isolated are highly mycotoxigenic and are a potential risk to human health.They produce mycotoxins which are responsible for a number of diseases.