Antifungal properties of some medicinal plants against undesirable and mycotoxin-producing fungl

Antifungal effects of essential oils obtained from five aromatic plants (lemon grass, brasil, sage, clove and rosemary) purchased from a local market in Egypt, were extracted to obtain the oil fraction and screened in vitro against three different pathogenic fungi, Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus), Asprgillus parasiticus (A.parasiticus) and Asprgillus ochraceus (A. ochraceus). The oil fraction from each tested plant, was carried out using water extraction and used to determine its inhibitory effects on both the fungal isolates. Also, the MIC of each oil extract and its content of the phytochemicals of phlenoles, flavonoides and terpenoids were determined. Data exhibited wide range of the inhibitory action occurred against the tested microorganisms where, bioactivity of the five plants reached its maximum using clove and its minimum using sage extracts against the tasted microorganisms. No bioactivity was observed in the treatment(s) of sage extract against the mold Asp. ochraceus. The other three extracts of rosemary, brasil and lemon grass showed roughly the same bioactivity. Also, data obtained from MIC and semi-quantitative determinations confirmed the results obtained from the antimicrobial bioactivity study. Except sage extract, the MIC of the other four extracts were ranged between 0.35-1.5 mg/ml, reached its maximum using clove and its minimum using lemon grss extracts. As well, the semi-quantitative determination of the phytochernicals of phenols, flavonides and terpenoids proved that clove extract had the highest concentration of terpenoids, while sage extract showed traces from the three phytochemicals. The other three extracts of basil, rosmary and lemon grass showed roughly the same Content of the sum of the three phytochemicals. These effects against the tested microorganisms indicated the possible ability of each essential oil as a food preservative.Therefore, it is suggested that further work be performed on food to test to antifungal and antibacterial properties of these oil fractions.