By Jeff Mulhollem
Fungal contamination in stored grain across sub-Saharan Africa causes major post-harvest loss and severe public health risks, costing billions of dollars annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). High humidity, warm temperatures and inadequate storage facilities can drive mold proliferation and toxin production in staple crops like corn and the cereal grain sorghum.
Farmers in West Africa have long used a mixture of traditional plants to reduce fungi in grain storage, but the true impact of this approach was unknown, according to an international team led by Penn State food scientists. Now, that team has found that a formulation made from an evergreen tree called neem, lemongrass, garlic and hot chili plants effectively inhibits the growth of two kinds of Fursarium fungus in corn.
They recently published their findings in Access Microbiology.
“We wanted to see if those plants actually worked and if a combination would be more effective,” said team leader and study senior author Josephine Wee, associate professor of food science in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “In sub-Saharan Africa, there are many, many smallholder farmers who grow small lots of grains, and they store their harvest. Then it gets collected and stored again before it reaches the facility that actually processes it. The warm, humid climate induces the growth of mold, which ruins the harvest, leading to decreased income for the farmers and decreased food supply for the community. Increases in global temperatures might make this problem worse.”
Source : psu.edu