Exploration of some potential bioactive essential oil components as green food preservative

Abstract

The present study investigates the bio-efficacy of five different essential oil components viz. elemicin, apiol, p-cymene, α-pinene and fenchone as food preservative against common food contaminating fungi including aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus (AFLHPR14) and inhibition of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) secretion. Elemicin and apiol exhibited significant antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic efficacy as compared to α-pinene, fenchone and p-cymene. Determination of intracellular ergosterol content demonstrated plasma-membrane as the possible target site of antifungal action. Moreover, the considerable inhibition of methylglyoxal (AFB1 inducer) biosynthesis after treatment with bioactive components exhibited novel antiaflatoxigenic mechanism of action. In silico homology modeling of components with ergosterol biosynthesizing gene, lanosterol-14-α-demethylase and AFB1 synthesizing genes viz. polyketide synthase and Ver-1 suggested key steps involving molecular target site, responsible for plasma-membrane disruption and AFB1 inhibition. Moreover, superior antioxidant activity and promising in situ antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic efficacy of bioactive components in storage containers using rice (Oryza sativa L.) as the model food system recommends their utilization as potential green preservative for shelf life extension of stored food commodities.