Evaluation of Antioxidant Activities and Antifungal Activity of Different Plants Species Against Pink Mold Rot-Causing Trichothecium roseum

Abstract

Trichothecium roseum causes the pink mold rot in many fruits and vegetables around the world. Due to this infection, significant losses arise in foods. In order to control this infection, plant extracts offer alternative treatment for fungicides. In this study, 50 plant species were screened for their antifungal effects against T. roseum. Anthemis arvensis, Origanum vulgare, Sambucus ebulus and Thymus longicaulis powders totally inhibited the mycelia growth of T. roseum at 10% (w/v). The powders of Chelidonium majus and Clinopodium vulgare were effective to T. roseum, with a percentage of inhibition of mycelia growth higher than 70%. MIC of A. arvensis aqueous extracts were lower than the other extracts (125 \(\upmu \hbox {g}\)/ml). Also its extracts inhibited the spore germination by 100% at 1000 \(\upmu \hbox {g}\)/ml. The incidence of the pink mold rot on tomatoes which were treated with C. majus aqueous extracts (75, 150 and 300 mg/ml) was lower than the extracts of other plants when compared to control. At concentration of 300 mg/ml, C. majus extracts prevented the disease by 71.42%. By the SEM, it was determined at the 4MIC extracts, cell wall degradation, swelling, flattening, lysis, collapsing and wrinkling on the hyphal structure. The highest total phenolic and flavanol contents were observed in O. vulgare extracts (310.49 mg GA/g) and T. longicaulis (5.24 mg CE/g). The \(\hbox {EC}_{50}\) values of the experimented extracts were lowered than the \(\hbox {EC}_{50}\) value of Gallic acid (1.87 mg/ml). Meanwhile, in all of the extracts there were phenolic compounds, protocatechuic, chlorogenic, caffeic acid and kaempferol as determined with HPLC system. This research demonstrates that C. majus aqueous extracts may possess high potential to control the pink mold rot on tomatoes as new natural antifungal products.