Abstract
The fruits of Ficus hirta (FH) display strong antifungal activity against Penicillium italicum and Penicillium digitatum. In order to optimize the extraction conditions of antifungal extracts from FH fruit, various extraction parameters, such as ethanol concentration, extraction time, solvent to solid ratio and temperature, were chosen to identify their effects on the diameters of inhibition zones (DIZs) against these two Penicillium molds. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to obtain the optimal combination of these parameters. Results showed that the optimal extraction parameters for maximum antifungal activity were: 90% (v/v) ethanol concentration, 65 min extraction time, 31 mL/g solvent to solid ratio and 51 °C temperature. Under the abovementioned extraction conditions, the experimental DIZs values obtained experimentally were 57.17 ± 0.75 and 39.33 ± 0.82 mm, which were very close to the values of 57.26 and 39.29 mm predicted by the model. Further, nine kinds of phytopathogens were tested in vitro to explore the antifungal activity of the FH extracts. It was found for the first time that the FH extracts showed significant inhibition on the growth of P. italicum, A. citri, P. vexans, P. cytosporella and P. digitatum.
Highlights
Ficus hirta Vahl. (Wuzhimaotao), a deciduous shrub of the family Moraceae, is widely distributed in southern China where it is used as a traditional plant resource both as a medicine and food by the Hakka people [1]
The diameters of inhibition zones (DIZs) of Ficus hirta (FH) Extracted with Different Extraction Solvents
The antifungal extracts from Ficus hirta ftuits were obtained with a three-factor, five-level central composite design (CCD) based on the Response surface methodology (RSM)
Summary
Ficus hirta Vahl. (Wuzhimaotao), a deciduous shrub of the family Moraceae, is widely distributed in southern China where it is used as a traditional plant resource both as a medicine and food by the Hakka people [1]. The fruits of Ficus hirta (FH) are used in Chinese folk medicine in the treatment of diuresis, difficult labor and puerperal pain, hepatitis and tumor [1,2]. It has many functional constituents, including flavonoids, coumarins and saponins, such as psoralen, bergapten, luteolin, apigenin, vitexin and 3,5,41-trihydroxy-3,7-dimethoxyflavone [2,3,4,5]. Studies on the antimicrobial activities of medicinal plants have increased remarkably in number due to increased interest in their potential use as an important source of botanical fungicides [8,9,10,11]
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