Assessment of Samanea saman Whole Pod Extract as an Antimicrobial Agent and its Effect on Chicken Patties

Purpose: Samanea saman whole pod (SSWP) has a potential to be used as an ingredient in broiler feed while its pod extract has antimicrobial properties. There is however, insufficient information on the use of Samanea saman whole pod extract (SSWPE) as antimicrobial agent in meat products. This study was aimed at assessing the antimicrobial effect of SSWPE against bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus feacalis, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pyogenes, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and assessing the potential of using SSWPE on chicken patties in order to reduce the microbial contaminants. Research Method: Agar well diffusion method and Minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) method were used to determine the antimicrobial activity in the pod extract. In order to investigate the antibacterial effect of S. saman extract in chicken patties, total plate counts and selective plate counts (to enumerate Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were carried out on refrigerated chicken patties stored for 1, 7 and 14 days. The data generated from the study were subjected to one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: The result of Agar well diffusion method showed that the SSWPE was active against all the tested bacteria with varying mean zones of inhibition. S. saman ethanolic whole pod extract has shown the 25 μg /ml as the minimum inhibition concentration against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria used in the study when compared to the standard Ciprofloxacin at 1μg /ml. The total microbial counts of the chicken patties with various treatments showed increase in total microbial counts with increment of the time of storage from day 1 to 14. Salmonella and Pseudomonas were absent in chicken patties at the day 1 and in other two sampling points (day 7 and 14) whereas Escherichia coli was present at day 1 in T4, T5 and in day 14 in T5. Original Value: Thus the extract of S. saman whole pods has a potential of serving as antimicrobial agent at the minimum inhibition concentration of 25 μg /ml