Occurrence of Fungi on Date Palm Fruits in Mubi Main Market, Adamawa State

The purpose of this study was to determine the occurrence of fungi on date palm fruits in Mubi main market. Two hundred (200) date palm fruits were collected from the sellers in four locations in Mubi main market using simple random sampling. The samples were cut into 3 mm pieces with the aid of sterilized razor blade, surface-sterilized in 1% hypochlorite for 30 seconds, placed on Potato Dextrose Agar and incubated at room temperature for 7 days. Pure cultures of the resulting fungi were obtained from subcultures of the primary plates. These were identified morphologically and microscopically in accordance with standard procedures. The result revealed that Aspergillus niger had the highest frequency of occurrence in date palm fruit rot with 34.8%, Rhizopus spp 22.8% and Trichophyton rubrum the lowest 7.6% respectively. Aspergillus species appeared to be the most toxigenic fungi recovered from the dates. It is recommended that contaminated dates should be sorted and eliminated to avoid reinfection while washing the dates with clean water prior to consumption should be strongly encouraged by appropriate authorities with the view to checking the spread of these fungi.