The Antifungal activity of alcohol extract of Peganum harmala seeds

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the inhibition activity of alcohol extract of Peganum harmala seeds in somepathogenic fungi (Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium spp.), which was isolated in food researchcenter/ Ministry of Science and Technology. Results revealed that alcohol extract of Peganum harmala seeds wasinhibited the growth of all kind of fungi under study at the extract concentrations (0.012,0.05, 0.25,0.5,1,5,20,50,100 ,200 and 300 mg/ml), colonies diameters for Aspergillus niger was 27, 25 mm at the concentrations 0.012 and0.05 mg/ml respectively in the comparison with its colonies diameter in the control group which was 38 mm forboth concentrations, and it was 26,21 mm for Aspergillus flavus at the same concentration (0.012 and 0.05 mg/ml)respectively, whereas the colonies diameter was decreased to 9,7 mm for Penicillium spp. at 0.012 and 0.05 mg/mlof alcohol extract respectively. In general, the inhibition activity of Peganum harmala seeds alcohol extract wasincreased with the increasing of extract concentrations. The growth rate of all kinds of fungi under study wascompletely inhibited at 0.25mg/ml concentration and above.