Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology

Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology Vol. 2 (3), pp. 175-179, March, 2014. © International Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Categorization and segregation of yeast strains from local food crops

Hammed Olla, Harshanti O. and Abubakar Bukar

Department of Medicine, Faculty of Sciences, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria.

E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted 02 February, 2014

Abstract 

Isolation and identification of yeast from Manihot esculenta, Zea mays, Cola acuminata and Sorghum bicolor was done using the spread plate technique. Morphological, cultural, physiological and molecular characterizations were carried out resulting in determination of the species. Four isolates belonging to different genera which include Pichia, Kluyveromyces, Candida and Saccharomyces were identified. This present study showed that the yeast isolates have the potential to ferment both hexose and pentose sugars.

Key words: Food crops, yeast, isolation, identification, fermentation.