Construction of a medium for Pseudomonas fluorescens from Local Resource and its Trial Application as a Biopreservative

Pseudomonas fluorescens is a widely dispersed plant growth promoting rhizobacteria. It is not a human or plant pathogen and is found in soil, water, plants and other moist environments. This organism has already been used as a biocide against various fungi and bacteria in agricultural fields [1]. It has lots of biocontrol properties, like antibiotics, enzymes and siderophore productions. Due to its siderophore production its pyoverdine pigment fluoresces under UV light. This study was conducted mainly to construct a media with the cheapest local resource or agricultural waste and also to find its application as a biopreservative. The raw materials required for the construction of medium were agricultural wastes, such as rice husk, rice straw, wheat husk, peanut waste, dried cow dung and then coconut water, whey water and vermicompost. Then these four combinations were inoculated from the mother inoculum and their growth was checked by serial dilution and spread plate technique. Then these cultures were applied to apples, tomatoes, curry leaves and betel leaves by dip inoculation method. The keeping qualities of these vegetables were checked till the control items were rotten under laboratory conditions approximately for about 7 days. The physiological characteristics were good and fresh in the preserved items for 7 days but decayed on the control products. Thus the first step towards the application of P. fluorescens as a biopreservative was successful.