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Abstrakt

Microbiological and Physicochemical Quality of Natural and Deteriorated Rubber Latexes

Mmuoegbulam OA, Ugwu CC, Obi IF and Igwe EE

Natural and deteriorated rubber latex samples were analyzed for bacteriological and physicochemical quality. Bacterial isolates obtained after 24 h of incubation ranged from 1.5×106 cfu/ml to 1.58×108 cfu/ml, corresponding to three weeks-deteriorated and natural rubber latexes respectively. However, after 48 h of incubation, the bacterial counts in the natural rubber latex, one week deteriorated rubber, two weeks deteriorated and three weeks deteriorated rubbers were 1.7×108 cfu/ml, 1.094×108 cfu/ml, and 7.1×107 cfu/ml respectively. Heterotrophic fungal counts ranged from 3.2×107 to 7.8×107 cfu/ml corresponding to three weeks-deteriorated and natural rubber latexes respectively. Statistical analysis for bacterial and fungal isolates showed that there was no significant difference in the mean bacterial and fungal counts within the samples at 95% confidence interval. Microorganisms isolated from natural and deteriorated rubber samples include Acetobacter spp., Enterococcus spp., Aspergillus spp., Actinomyces spp., Penicillin spp., Saccharomyces spp. Physicochemical analysis showed a weakly acidic condition of natural rubber latex and an extreme degree of hardness in all the deteriorated rubber samples.