A.S. Ogbebor

Despite the presence of different variety of chemical fungicides, the search for new antifungal substances against plant pathogens continues because of the negative effect these fungicides has on both the plants and the environment. This study was aimed at assessing the antifungal activities of Moringa oleifera and Olea europaea oil individually and their synergistic combination against selected phytopathogenic fungi. Two fungi were isolated from agricultural soils obtained from different locations. Antifungal activities of Moringa, Olive oil individually and synergistically were performed using the food poisoning method. Penicillium chrysogenum and Mucor circinelloides used in this study were isolated from the agricultural soil. The phytochemical analysis of Moringa oil revealed a cocktail of phytochemicals while Olive oil showed only the presence of terpenoids. From the results, Moringa oil alone demonstrated strong activity against the pathogens with radial growth inhibition ranging from 2.83±0.04mm (Penicillium chrysogenum, 14%) to 5.83±0.10mm (Mucor circinelloides, 6%) this was significantly different from the controls (17.66±0.33mm for Penicillium chrysogenum and 39.16±0.05mm for Mucor circinelloides). For Olive oil alone the radial growth inhibition ranged from 4.90±0.05mm (Penicillium chrysogenum, 14%) to 24±0.30mm (Mucor circinelloides, 2%)
this was significantly different from the controls (17.66±0.33mm for Penicillium chrysogenum and 39.16±0.05mm for Mucor circinelloides). The synergistic combination of Moringa oil and Olive oil gave a result ranging from 0.00±0.00mm (Mucor circinelloides, 14%) to 12.33±0.14mm (Penicillium chrysogenum, 14%) compared to their controls (17.66±0.33mm for Penicillium chrysogenum and 39.16±0.05mm for Mucor circinelloides). The highest percentage mycelial radial growth inhibiton for Moringa oil on day 7 was 89.79% (Mucor circinelloides) and the lowest was 71.70% (Penicillium chrysogenum).

The popularity of the plant- based milk drinks is on the increase as substitutes to the traditional dairy products due to the growing consumer awareness of the health, sustainability and ethical concerns. Although plant-based milk drinks have nutritional ad vantages, there are major challenges in production, storage and distribution and has been associated with higher chances of food-borne disease. Some studies have indicated bacterial contaminants in plant-based milk drinks including soya milk, kunu and coconut milk. This research paper sought to examine the bacterial and fungal contamination profile of plant-based milk drinks during storage. The milk drinks are the plant-based ones which were bought in three Benin City markets and they consist
of the samples of kunu, soya, tiger nut and coconut milk. The enumeration and isolation of bacteria and fungi were done using the pour plate method. Identification was done using the cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics of the isolates. The heterotrophic bacterial counts had a mean of 1.90+-0.53x105 (soya milk) -82.40+-6.90 x 105 cfu/mL (coconut milk). The total Salmonella-Shigella count was between 1.10+-0.48 x 105 cfu/mL (tiger nut milk) and too numerous to count (coconut milk). The average fungal counts were between 2.40+-0.25 (soya milk) -44.00+-0.00 x 105 cfu/mL (tiger nut milk). The identified bacterial isolates are Bacillus cereus (16.00%), (25.00%), Pseudomonas sp. (8.33%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (25.00%), Bacillus subtilis (16.60%), Staphylococcus sp. (25.00%) and Salmonella sp. (16.60%). Saccharomyces sp. (16.60%), Mucor sp. (8.33%), Penicillium sp. (16.60%) and
Aspergillus flavus (25.00%) were the most common genera of the fungi.