Abstract
The antifungal and antiaflatoxinogenic activities of the essential oils (EOs) from the leaves of Cymbopogon schoenanthus, Cymbopogon citratus, Cymbopogon nardus, and their pair combinations were investigated. Antifungal susceptibility and the efficacy of paired combinations of EOs were assessed using agar microdilution and checkerboard methods, respectively. Identification and quantification of chemical components of the EOs were carried out by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-MS and GC-FID), respectively. Aflatoxins were separated and identified by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and then quantified by spectrofluorescence. The EO of C. nardus exhibited the highest inhibitory activity against Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. The combination of C. citratus and C. nardus and that of C. nardus and C. schoenanthus exhibited a synergistic effect against Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus, respectively. Both C. citratus and C. schoenanthus EOs totally inhibited the synthesis of aflatoxin B1 at 1 µL/mL. C. citratus blocked the production of aflatoxins B2 and G2 at 0.5 µL/mL. Both C. citratus and C. schoenanthus totally hampered the production of the aflatoxin G1 at 0.75 µL/mL. The combination of C. citratus and C. schoenanthus completely inhibited the production of the four aflatoxins. The study shows that the combinations can be used to improve their antifungal and antiaflatoxinogenic activities.
Highlights
The highest yield was obtained with the essential oils (EOs) from C. nardus and the lowest with that from C. citratus
The extraction yields of EOs obtained in the present study were in the range of 0.7–0.8%, and 0.14–1.33% previously reported for C. citratus and C. nardus, respectively [25,26,27,28,29]; whereas that of C. schoenanthus was lower than those found in the literature which were between 1.4%
The present study shows that the EOs from C. citratus, C. nardus, and C. schoenanthus exerted antifungal activities against A. flavus and A. parasiticus
Summary
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by various filamentous fungi, mainly belonging to Fusarium, Aspergillus, Penicillium, and genera [1]. They contaminate food, feed, and various agricultural commodities either before harvest or under post-harvest conditions [1,2]. Aflatoxin- (B1, B2, G1, and G2) producing species are considered as the most important in terms of prevalence, toxicity, and impact on human and animal health [4,5]. The environmental, agricultural, and food storage conditions in Africa favor the development of molds of the genus Aspergillus and the production of aflatoxins [10]
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