Matured leaves of
Ocimum gratissimum
were harvested and the extracts used to cure
Suya (an intermediate moisture meat).
O. gratissimum leaves were collected from Oyo state south west region of Nigeria, rinsed in distilled water and squeezed to extract the fluid. The meat used was
Semi membranosus muscle from beef carcass, which was trimmed of all visible fat and connective tissues. The meat cut was sliced into sheets of 0.18cm-0.35cm thick and lengths of between 5.0cm-7.1cm. The study comprised five treatments with 10 replicates each in a completely randomized design. Treatment A (TA) served as the control (
Suya without
O. gratissimum extract(
OGE), while treatment B (TB),treatment C (TC), treatment D (TD) and treatment E (TE) were Suya soaked in
OGE for ½ hr, 1hr, l½ hrs and 2 hrs, respectively, before coating with
Suya ingredients. A total of 50 sticks of
Suya weighing from 38.10 - 59.30 grams of sliced meat per stick were prepared for each treatment. The meat on sticks was properly coated with Suya ingredients and arranged around glowing embers of charcoal. The morphological and biochemical characterization of aerobic bacteria, coliform and lactic acid isolates from the five treatments was carried out. At Day 0, isolates from samples of the five treatments include: Aerobic species of
Pseudomonas
,
Bacillus
,
Micrococcus
, and
Flavobacterium
species. Three Coliform species isolated were:
Proteus
,
Aeromonas
and
Enterobacter
species. The four Lactic acid bacteria isolated were
Pediococcus
,
Streptococcus
,
Lactobacillus
species and
Enterococcus faecalis
. The bacterial count on
Suya meat soaked in
OGE at different curing times of ½ hr, 1hr, 1½ hrs and 2hrs differed. The aerobic counts (0.001x10
5- 2.2x10
5) were relatively low at the third and fifth days for TC, TD, and TE while for Lactic acid bacteria, the count reduced from 3.0x10
5 in TA to 0.2x10
5 in TE. Coliform counts of 6.0x10
5 and 7.0x10
5 recorded at day 7 for TA and TB were exceptionally high.
O. gratissimum extract, used as a curing agent in
suya production significantly reduced the aerobic count of treated meat, thus enhancing the keeping quality of the products.