en Clinical Medicine Clinical Medicine مقاله پژوهشی Original Research Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><strong><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Background and Objective:</span></span> </strong><em>Clostridium&nbsp;perfringens</em>&nbsp;is an anaerobic bacterium, commonly present in retail foods. Its enterotoxin-producing ability, short generation time, ability to grow at elevated temperatures, and spore-forming ability, allows it to survive in food-processing temperatures, and cause foodborne illness. The aim of study was to screen dehydrated vegetables contaminated with <em>cpe</em> and <em>cpa </em>carrying <em>C.perfringens</em>.<br> <strong><span style="color:#ffffff;"><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Materials and Methods:</span></span> </strong>This is descriptive-analytical study, was carried out on 140 samples (70 unpacked and&nbsp; 70 packed) dehydrated vegetables collected from different areas of Tehran. Samples were inoculated on peptone and sulfite polymyxin sulfadiazine (SPS) agar for enrichment. The enrichment culture was then incubated on anaerobic condition for 48 hours. The black colonies were selected for identification test and PCR. The bacterial colonies were identified by biochemical tests, and duplex PCR was performed for &alpha;-toxin (<em>cpa</em>) and enterotoxin (<em>cpe</em>) genes.<br> <span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Results:</span></strong></span>&nbsp;In general 13 samples (9.3%) were identified as <em>C. perfringens</em> using phenotypic methods, all of the isolates were also positive for <em>cpa</em> but negative for <em>cpe</em> gene. The contamination rate for packed vegetables was 12.8% and for unpacked was 5.7%.<br> <span style="color:#ffffff;"><strong><span style="background-color:#008080;">&nbsp;Conclusion:</span></strong></span> Our finding showed that contamination of packed dehydrated vegetables was higher than unpacked; this might be due to drying as well as packaging process. We found that these isolates were negative for enterotoxin.</span></span></p> Clostridium perfringens, Dehydrated Vegetables, Enterotoxin 63 67 http://journal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-460-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Sedighe Ghourchian homaghoorchian@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056051 5200319475328460056051 No Division of Food Microbiology, Dept. of Pathobiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Masoumeh Douraghi douraghim@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056052 5200319475328460056052 No Food Microbiology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Akram Baghani akrambaghani@yahoo.com 5200319475328460056053 5200319475328460056053 No Food Microbiology Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Mohammad Mehdi Soltan Dallal msoltandallal@gmail.com 5200319475328460056054 5200319475328460056054 Yes Division of Food Microbiology, Dept. of Pathobiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran