Screening of antifungal and antimycotoxigenic activity of plant phenolic extracts

Abstract

The antifungal and antimycotoxigenic activities of extracts from edible plants were tested by the agar dilution method using the growth diameter of Aspergillus flavus as response and the determination of aflatoxins B1 and B2 in the culture medium. On the 7th incubation day, the greatest fungal inhibitions were reached by the extracts from potato peel; rice and wheat; lemon peel and pulp; eggplant peel; orange peel and pulp; and apple pulp. After the 14-day incubation, the extracts from banana (30 µg phenol/ml agar), eggplant (30 µg phenol/ml agar), and potato (50 and 67 µg phenol/ml agar) pulp reduced the production of aflatoxin B1 by 3.2%/µg phenol/ml agar, 2.9%/µg phenol/ml agar, 1.8%/µg phenol/ml agar and 0.85%/µg phenol/ml agar, respectively, in relation to the control. The extracts from the other vegetables fully inhibited the synthesis of the mycotoxin. These results point to the studied plants and their residues as potential sources of phenolic compounds that may have an inhibitory effect on fungal development and the production of mycotoxins in food.