Application of Gum Arabic as Edible Coating for Improving Postharvest Quality of Potato Tubers

Hydrocolloid gums are extensively used in food industry. Recently hydrocolloid gums especially Gum Arabic (GA) has been widely used as edible coatings to extent shelf life of postharvest fruits and vegetables. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of GA edible film application mixed with glycerol and CaCl2as base matrix with all GA films i.e. GA/EDTA,GA/L. paracasei supernatant and GA/EDTA /L. paracasei supernatant in preservation of potato tubers stored at 8°C and 30±5°C for 35 days. Physicochemical analyses including pH, weight loss percentage and total soluble solids percentage (TSS), as well as microbial analysis (total counts of bacteria, mold and yeast and Enterobacteriaceae).The obtained result revealed that the total microbial count was found that GA/EDTA/ L. paracasei supernatant gave a very close results to petroleum coating (wax) and the best results compared withnoncoated (control) tubers, this was evident through the lower microbial load, better results than other treatments and noncoated tubers such as reducing weight loss, total soluble solids, better control on pH and expansion of the shelf life

Trends in the assessment of multidrug efficiency against identified bacterial strains isolated from wounds at El-Demerdash Hospital, Egypt

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria is a severe problem for universal public health which increases morbidity and mortality rate. These resistant bacteria lead to ineffective treatment of drugs resulting in the spreading and persistence of infections. So, the major target of this study is to estimate the competence of multidrug antibacterial agents against bacterial strains isolated from wound samples and then identify the most potent Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria. Fifty wound swab specimens were gathered from various wounds and several patients from the Central Microbiology Laboratory of El-Demerdash Hospital, Cairo, Egypt. Eighty- nine bacterial isolates were isolated from fifty wound samples then cultured on different media and tested for their susceptibility to different thirty antibiotic discs using the agar disc diffusion method. After recording the results of the susceptibility test, the post potent resistant bacterial isolates recorded 3 bacterial isolates which resistant to 30 different antibiotic types. These resistant bacterial isolates were identified using morphological, biochemical, and molecular techniques. The results recorded that the post potent resistant bacterial isolates identified as Klebsiella oxytoca, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli. This study concluded that with the increase in the random use of antibiotic drugs resulted in the presence of multi-antibacterial resistant strains. There are bacterial strains that were isolated from wounds in patients at El-Demerdash Hospital, Egypt, and identified. They can resist about thirty different antibiotic discs. Abbreviation: Multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR)