Fungal contamination associated with some dried fruits in Iran

Abstract

In order to identify fungal species associated with some dried fruits including; Common fig, Date palm, and White Mulberry, 35 fruit samples were collected from common markets in the south of Kerman province, Jiroft, Iran, during 2016. After surface disinfestation with 0.5% NaOCl, small fragments of each dried fruit were plated onto Potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. Recovered fungal isolates were purified by single spore method. Morphological characteristics of each isolate were recorded. Results of identification recorded that about seven fungal species including; Alternaria alternata, A. tenuissima, Arthrinium arundinis, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Clastospora gossypii var. polymorpha, Fusarium oxysporum and F. verticillioides were obtained. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of isolating and identifying the fungi associated with dried fruits in Iran.

Keywords

• dried fruits
• date
• white mulberry
• fungal species
• morphology
• jirof