Dhritiman Chanda* and Bomter Tao

Department of Botany, University of Science and Technology Meghalaya - 793101 (India) *Corresponding author’s email: dhriti.delhi@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

For the study to demonstrate Koch’s postulates, a survey was first conducted and then commercially available leguminous vegetables with diseased symptoms were collected from the displayed vegetables from different vendors in the market. Diseases causes biochemical alteration as well as change in the shape and colour of the affected vegetables deeming it unfit for consumption by humans as the affected vegetables become toxic and can cause numerous health hazards if consumed. The loss due to post-harvest diseases also affect the supply and availability of vegetables making it inaccessible to most of the population due to the spike in prices. The experiment was conducted in the aim to study and observe pathogens responsible for causing disease from selected diseased vegetables and for confirming whether it shows positive results for Koch’s four postulates when the pathogens responsible are inoculated to sterilized healthy vegetables. The leguminous plants selected for this study were pea, lima bean, hyacinth bean and common bean. The disease causing pathogens on the four different leguminous vegetables were identified to be Aspergillus species and Mucor species.

Key words : Vegetables, Koch’s postulates, mycotoxin, post- harvest disease, pathogenicity, micro fungi

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