Abstract
Fungal infections of cultivated food crops result in extensive losses of crops at the global level, while resistance to antifungal agents continues to grow. Supercritical fluid extraction using CO2 (SFE-CO2) has gained attention as an environmentally well-accepted extraction method, as CO2 is a non-toxic, inert and available solvent, and the extracts obtained are, chemically, of greater or different complexities compared to those of conventional extracts. The SFE-CO2 extracts of Achillea millefolium, Calendula officinalis, Chamomilla recutita, Helichrysum arenarium, Humulus lupulus, Taraxacum officinale, Juniperus communis, Hypericum perforatum, Nepeta cataria, Crataegus sp. and Sambucus nigra were studied in terms of their compositions and antifungal activities against the wheat- and buckwheat-borne fungi Alternaria alternata, Epicoccum nigrum, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium poae. The C. recutita and H. arenarium extracts were the most efficacious, and these inhibited the growth of most of the fungi by 80% to 100%. Among the fungal species, B. cinerea was the most susceptible to the treatments with the SFE-CO2 extracts, while Fusarium spp. were the least. This study shows that some of these SFE-CO2 extracts have promising potential for use as antifungal agents for selected crop-borne fungi.
Highlights
Fungi are an integral part of the natural environment, and they have many positive roles, such as for industrial exploitation in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural and food industries [1,2,3,4,5], they are major contributors to food spoilage
The objective of the present study is to determine the antifungal activities of Supercritical fluid extraction using CO2 (SFE-CO2) extracts of 11 plant species: yarrow (Achillea millefolium), marigold (Calendula officinalis), chamomile (Chamomilla recutita), sandy everlasting (Helichrysum arenarium), hops (Humulus lupulus), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), juniper (Juniperus communis), St
The supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)-CO2 extracts of the juniper fruit studied by Barjaktarović et al [16] showed a great diversity of compounds, which depended on the pressures and extraction times used
Summary
Fungi are an integral part of the natural environment, and they have many positive roles, such as for industrial exploitation in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agricultural and food industries [1,2,3,4,5], they are major contributors to food spoilage. Pathogenic fungi are responsible for up to a 20% loss of global crop yields yearly, which includes the loss of 125 million tons of the five most cultivated food crops, while 10% of crops are destroyed during post-harvest [6]. Tightening the regulations on chemical use and the modern perspective on harmful residues has led to renewed focus on natural products, such as plant extracts and essential oils, and their use as antifungal agents [8]. The composition of plant extracts is, dependent on various factors, such as the plant species, the part of the plant used and the growing conditions, which include soil, climate and time of harvest. The choice of an extraction method is extremely important to provide comparable final products that maintain the primary composition of the plant source [10]
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