Oladunmoye Muftau K¹, Isijola Samuel O¹ and Oladosu Tolulope O²*

¹Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria
²Department of Biological Sciences, Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Oladosu Tolulope O, Department of Biological Sciences, Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Received: January 22, 2018; Published: February 21, 2018

DOI: 10.31080/ASMI.2018.01.0028

Citation: Oladunmoye Muftau K ., et al. “Antimicrobial Activity of Extract from the Abdominal Gland of African Weaver Ants ( Oecophylla longinoda ) on the Microorganisms Isolated from Cocoa Pods”. Acta Scientific Microbiology 1.3 (2018).

Abstract

  This research was conducted to investigate into the antimicrobial potency of the abdominal gland extract of African Weaver Ant (AWA) against microorganisms isolated from Cocoa pods. Six (6) fresh samples of both infected and uninfected Cocoa pods gotten from a village farm in Ibule-soro, Ondo State were transferred to the laboratory under aseptic conditions. One gram from the pod of each sample was subjected to microbial analysis for isolation and the antimicrobial effects of the AWA abdominal extract was sub- sequently evaluated. Selected conventional antibiotics were used as controls. Bacterial isolates obtained were Bacillus subtilis, Pseu- domonas aeruginosa, Serratia fonticola, Proteus penneri, Enterobacter cloacae, Citrobacter freundii, Edwardsiella tarda, Klebsiella oxy- toca and Proteus mirabilis , while fungal isolates were Aspergillus aculeatinus, Alternaria sp., Chloridium chlamydosporis, Aspergillus niger, Phytophthora palmivora, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus tamari, Fusarium sp., Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium camemberti, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomycodes ludwigii . Four of all the bacterial isolates ( Bacillus subtilis, Edwardsiella tarda, Proteus penneri, Proteus mirabilis ) used for this study exhibited high levels of sensitivity to the abdominal gland of African weaver ants with the following zones of inhibition: 19 mm, 19 mm, 20 mm and 21 mm respectively. Similarly, fungal isolates were observed to be sen- sitive to the Oecophylla longinoda abdominal extract, with Aspergillus flavus having the highest zone of inhibition (14.89 mm). This research reveals the potentials of abdominal extracts from African weaver ants ( Oecophylla longinoda ) in antimicrobial capacities against most aetiological agents of Cocoa diseases.

Keywords:Cocoa; Oecophylla Longinoda ; Antibacterial; Antifungal

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