en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Background: </strong>The vegetables provide important nutrients to human beings. Nevertheless, contaminated vegetables can cause health problems because of their microbial load. The aim of this study was to assess the microbial quality of three main leafy vegetables cultivated and consumed at Porto-Novo in Republic of Benin.<br> <strong>Methods:</strong> Totally, 36 samples of amaranth, nightshade, and lettuce were taken from three districts of Porto-Novo at urban gardening level. The samples were tested microbiologically according to international standards for determination of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, total coliforms, faecal coliforms, <em>Clostridium perfringens,</em> faecal streptococci, and <em>Salmonella </em>spp. The results were analyzed using SPSS software v. 16.0.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> In total, aerobic mesophilic bacteria counts in leafy vegetables ranged from 4.42&times;10⁵ to 1.08&times;10⁶Colony Forming Unit (CFU)/g. The highest and lowest total coliform loads were found in lettuces (3.21&times;10³CFU/g) and the nightshades (1.78&times;10²CFU/g), showing significant (<em>p</em><0.05) difference. Faecal streptococci load ranged from 1.01&times;10³ to 3.18&times;10³ CFU/g and was significantly (<em>p</em>˂0.05) higher in amaranths than in lettuces and nightshades. <em>C. perfringens</em> ranged from 0.633&times;10¹ to 1.18&times;10¹ CFU/g.&nbsp;<em>Salmonella</em> spp. was absent in all vegetables.&nbsp;<br> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> High microbial contaminations were found in the three leafy vegetables in urban gardening at Porto-Novo, Benin. So, it is necessary to improve the microbial quality of leafy vegetables farmed at Porto-Novo for reduction of health risk in consumers.<br> <br> <strong>DOI:</strong> 10.18502/jfqhc.6.4.1995</span></span></div> Bacterial Load, Food Microbiology, Vegetables, Benin 168 173 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-796-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 E.J. Hougbenou Houngla jacquos75@yahoo.fr 0000-0003-0381-0036 Yes Direction de l’Alimentation et de la Nutrition Appliquée, BP 295, Porto-Novo, Benin A. Gbankoto No Laboratoire de Physiologie et de Pharmacologie Expérimentales, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, 01 BP 526 Cotonou, Bénin C.D. Tossougbo Hinson No Laboratoire de Physiologie et de Pharmacologie Expérimentales, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, 01 BP 526 Cotonou, Bénin