Mycotoxic effects of medicinal plants on the asexual reproduction of Aspergillus nigar ATCC 1015

Abstract

Medicinal plants are tremendous source in herbal medicine for treatment of diverse range of disease, due to increasing rate of microbial infections their in vitro antimicrobial activity was analyzed. Mycotoxic effect of aqueous extract of medicinal plants Zatartia multiflora, Thymus vulgaris and Psammogeton canescens on asexual life cycle of Aspergillus nigar ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) 1015 were analyzed. To investigate the in vitro antifungal activity of Z. multiflora, T. vulgaris and P. canescens aqueous extract with three dilutions 0.13, 0.25 and 0.50% were prepared and their antifungal activity on three reproductive stages spore germination, mycelia elongation and sporulation (spore viability) of Aspergillus nigar ATCC 1015 were checked and compare with standard drug Miconazole. Plants under study possess antifungal activity that varied at different stages of reproduction, the intensity of inhibitory effects varied with the species and the concentration of extract used. P. canescens has remarkable inhibitory effects on spore germination and mycelia elongation with increase in concentration as compared to T. vulgaris and Z. multiflora. P. canescens also has well enough antifungal activity on sporulation it completely retards the spore formation at 0.50% and linear decrease in spores viability was recorded with the rise in extract amount in the medium while T. vulgaris and Z. multiflora also significantly affect spore formation and viability of spores. The maximum reduction in spore formation and viability of spore was recorded at 0.50% extract concentration i.e., 35.10 %and 64.31 %, respectively, in Zataria multiflora extract with respect to control. The standard drug Miconazole possesses splendid antifungal activity at all three stages of Aspergillus nigar strain. Hence A. nigar is extremely sensitive to Miconazole and P. canescens while T. vulgaris and Z. multiflora have significant inhibitory effects on spore germination, sporulation and on spore viability reproductive stages of Aspergillus nigar ATCC 1015.