Sonicated date syrup media preparation for microbial culture

Abstract

20% of the world’s date exports are produced by Iran and much of these fruits are either damaged or has insufficient quality for human  consumption. The proportion of the crop (35% of the total crops) that
currently goes to waste can be turned into useful byproducts. Because of the high cost of commercial prepared culture media in Iran, it is envisioned that date waste can be used in the preparation of microbial culture media. In this study, various solidified date syrups were produced as culture media and the effect of date constituents with/without ultrasound waves irradiation were investigated using selected natural micro flora of date by agar dilution method and the results were compared with classical culture media containing PDA for fungi and PCA for bacterial cultures. The results showed that, extracted date syrup by ultrasound waves is an ideal media  for enriching Aspergillus spp. and Mucor spp growth. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that date syrup containing media can also be used as a selective media due to its inhibition to certain bacteria and fungi. Hence, there is an economical benefit from the use of date syrup in the preparation of certain enrichment and selective microbiological media.

Key words: Date syrup, culture media, ultrasound, microbial.