Abstract
Essential oils of Bunium persicum (Parsi Zira), Carum copticum (Ajwain) andCinnamomum zeylanicum (cinnamon) were tested in vitro as growth inhibitors against six forma special of Fusarium oxysporum. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and median effective concentrations (EC50) values (µl/L) were also demonstrated. The antifungal activity of essential oils was assayed by poison food medium method (0, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 µl/L). Essential oils were extracted by means of hydro-distillation and afterwards, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was performed to identify their components. The main constituents were cinnamaldehyd (77.51%), β-linalool (11.13%), α-cubebene (1.18%) and 1S, CIS-calamenene (1.06%) for C. zeylanicum, thymol (52.95%), γ-terpinene (13.53%), p-cymene (11.28%) in C. copticum and γ-terpinene (24.02%), cuminaldehyde (20.1%), para-cymene (13.09%), benzenemethanol alpha-propyl (13.01%), cyclopentane, 2-methyl-1-methylene-3-(1- methylethenyl) (3.57%) in B. persicum. All three essential oils exhibited antifungal effect on the studied fungi species; but essential oil of C. zeylanicum was more effective. The growth of F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri and F. oxysporum f. sp. melonis was completely inhibited by essential oil of C. zeylanicum at 200 ppm concentrations. Key words: Antifungal activity, essential oils, Fusarium oxysporum.
Highlights
Plant pathogens that include fungi, nematodes, bacteria and viruses can cause diseases or damages in plants (Montesinos, 2003)
Chemical analysis of essential oils by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) allowed identification of cinnamaldehyd (77.51%), β-linalool (11.13%), α-cubebene (1.18%) and 1S, CIS-calamenene (1.06%) for C. zeylanicum (Table 1); thymol (52.95%), γterpinene (13.53%) and p-cymene (11.28%) for C. copticum (Table 2); and γ-terpinene (24.02%), cuminaldehyde (20.1%), para-Cymene (13.09%), benzene methanol, alpha-propyl (13.01%), cyclopentane, 2-methyl-1-methylene-3-(1-methylethenyl) (3.57%) for B. persicum (Table 3) as the main components
Six isolates of pathogens were obtained from diseased potato, chickpea, and cantaloupe. These isolates belong to F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (F27 and F37), F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceris (F3 and F6) and F. oxysporum f. sp. melonis (F12 and F22)
Summary
Plant pathogens that include fungi, nematodes, bacteria and viruses can cause diseases or damages in plants (Montesinos, 2003). Fungi are the main pathogen and cause many diseases in plants. Pathogenic fungi cause yield losses in numerous economically important crops (Fletcher and Bender, 2006). The genus Fusarium is widely found in plant debris and crops (Marasas et al, 1984). Fungi can infect and cause tissue destruction on important crops such as corn, wheat and other small grains in the field. They produce mycotoxins on crops in field and in storage grains (Dambolena and Zunino, 2010)
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