Physico-Chemical and Antimicrobial Study of Hydro-Distilated Essential Oil Obtained from Nigerian Pepper (Capsicum frutescens)

Globally the industrial utilization of pepper is moving from the use of conventional powder to the extracts consequent upon their technical and economic benefits. Nigeria should not be left out of this global trend as a result of the enormous quantity of pepper extracts now used in the food industries.The antimicrobial activity of essential oil of Capsicum frutescens was assessed in this study. The physicochemical properties of essential oil obtained from fresh and dried pepper was carried out and their anti microbial attribute investigated using fresh and boiled fish. Physico-chemical results showed that sun dried pepper had a pH of 4.47 compared to the oven dried pepper (4.57) and fresh pepper sample (5.63) and the titratable acidity ranges from 0.19 (fresh pepper) to 0.10 (Sun dried pepper). Fresh pepper had relatively high moisture content (91.66). Fresh fish and boiled fish without the essential oil were used as control .The fresh and boiled fish were treated with a 30:70 concentration of essential oil and water respectively. Control samples had the highest microbial load compared to the fish preserved with the pepper essential oil samples. The total pate count result showed that oven dried pepper essential oil exhibit more preservative attribute for both fresh fish and boiled fish (3.3×106, 2.9×106) compared to pepper essential oil extracts. The food antimicrobial study showed that pepper essential oil can be used as a preservative to reduce food spoilage by extending the shelf life of food products.

KEYWORDS: Essential oil, fresh pepper, sun dried pepper, oven dried pepp