K. Ragul, K. Sundar and Prathapkumar H. Shetty*
Department of Food Science and Technology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry – 605014, India.
Received on 25 August 2016 and accepted on 03 October 2016
ABSTRACT
Pickle is considered as an integral part of Indian meal, especially in southern India. There are several varieties of pickles made out of different vegetables across India and mango pickle is predominant among them. The present study validates histamine level and its associated bacterial population in mango pickles. The preliminary microbial analysis on Niven’s agar revealed the population of histamine-producing bacteria in mango pickle. Further confirmation of histamine producing bacteria with PCR using HDC specific primers showed two bacterial isolates had HDC gene and they were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing as Enterobacter cloacae PUFSTP86 and E. cloacae PUFSTP92. Physicochemical analysis and nutritional properties of mango pickle showed pH (5.3 to 6.4), moisture (67.17 to 74.76 %), ash (85.20 to 88.72 %), nitrogen content (3.60 to 7.46 %) and water activity (0.86 to 0.89 aw). Histamine in the mango pickles was quantified using HPLC and noticed a lesser histamine content (3.60 to 7.46 mg kg-1) which makes mango pickle safer for consumption. Nutritional property and histamine content concludes that the mango pickle does not lead to any histamine related toxication and are biologically safer fermented product.
Keywords :
Mango pickle; Histamine; Histidine Decarboxylase gene (HDC); HPLC.