ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Cyril Adonu1, Patrick Onyi2 , Hannah Okorie3, Sunday Urama1, Felix Abugu1, Victor Eze1, Treasure Ujam1, Restus Onwusoba2, Ibeabuchi Ali3 and James Ezema4
1Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu State, Nigeria.
2Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.
3Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu State, Nigeria.
4Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Article Number: 10307 | © The Author(s). 2025
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2025;19(3):2247-2259. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.19.3.52
Received: 10 February 2025 | Accepted: 31 July 2025 | Published online: 03 September 2025
Issue online: September 2025
Abstract

Palm wine, locally called nkwu ellu or ekpo, holds significant cultural and economic importance as it is consumed on a daily basis in many parts of Nigeria. The presence of histamine in palm wine at a level that causes foodborne illnesses and allergic reactions is caused by both native and contaminating bacteria such as members of Enterobacteriaceae. This research determined the prevalence of histamine producing, multidrug-resistant Escherichia species from palm wine during fermentation. Microbiological analysis and histamine production were evaluated on randomly sampled palm wine. Bacterial isolation and phenotypic characterization were done according to standard microbiological procedures. DNA sequencing was employed to verify the specific strain of bacteria isolated. Antibiotic sensitivity testing was performed on the bacteria isolated. Of all the 320 palm wine samples tested, 37 (11.56%) were contaminated with histamine-producing Escherichia species. The strains of Escherichia species cultured include Escherichia coli (E. coli) UFV 251, Escherichia fergusonii APO3, E. coli Z1322PEC0229, E. coli PL-AGW6, E. coli Saman5 and E. coli ZK-1. Antibiotic susceptibility profiles showed that all these strains were multidrug-resistant. In regard to the duration of fermentation, the average histamine content (mg/kg) of the test palm wine tapped from standing life oil palm tree (nkwu ellu) and felled palm tree (ekpo) ranged from 1.00121e-4 to 9.82127e-2 and 1.22120e-2 to 9.96332e-1, respectively. The ability of these multidrug-resistant Escherichia species to produce histamine poses serious public health menace. Therefore, extensive improvement in the hygienic practices during production and handling, and the control of fermentation conditions are necessary to prevent the product contamination and histamine production to ensure the safety of the drink.

Keywords

Palm Wines, Antibiotic Resistance, Fermentation, Escherichia Species, Histamine Production

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© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.