In Vitro Screening of Antifungal Effects of Different Plant Essential

Oils on White Fusarium

Yongdong Xie

1,4,a

, Jiawen Zhu

2,b

, Hanyang Liu

2,c

, Huashan Lian

3,d

and Ji Liu

4,e,*

Chengdu Agricultural Science and Technology Center, Chengdu 610213, China

Research Institute of Animal Husbandry, Chengdu Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences,

Chengdu 611130, China

School of Agriculture and Horticulture, Chengdu Agricultural College, Chengdu 611130, China

Research Institute of Agricultural Products Processing and Storage, Chengdu Academy of Agriculture and Forestry

Sciences, Chengdu 611130, China

Keywords: White Fusarium, Oregano Essential Oil, Inhibition Ratio, Grape.

Abstract:

White Fusarium can easily lead to postharvest grape rot. By studying the inhibition rate of different essential

oils on white Fusarium, the type and concentration of essential oils with better antifungal effect were screened

out. The results showed that the concentration of essential oils was 1000 μL/L, and the inhibition ratio of 5

essential oils among the 32 essential oils was 100%. Further reducing the concentration of these five essential

oils to 500 μL/L, cinnamon, basil, and oregano still had 100% continuous bacteriostatic ratio. But at the

concentration of 250 μL/L, only oregano essential oil had a higher bacteriostatic rate, but it was still lower

than 100%. It indicated that oregano essential oil higher than 250 μL/L had better antifungal effect on white

Fusarium.

1 INTRODUCTION

Grape is a seasonal fruit which ripening period is

mainly concentrated in the hot summer. The planting

area of grapes in China is wide and the varieties are

complete. They are mainly used for fresh food or

made into raisins, grape juice, oil extraction, and

winemaking. Grapes and their products are not only

delicious, but also have high nutritional value and

health care functions, so they are much loved by

consumers and have great economic development

value and broad market prospects (Rinaldi, 2017).

In the process of picking and harvesting, the

surface of grapes will be damaged by mechanical

friction; in addition, the fruit itself has the

characteristics of soft pulp, and high-water content,

making it vulnerable to pathogenic fungus infection

(Sultan, 2010). Common pathogens that cause grape

diseases include Botrytis cinerea, Penicillium,

Fusarium, etc. These pathogens can not only cause

grape diseases, but also secrete secondary metabolites

that are unfavorable to the human body. Therefore,

reasonable measures should be taken to control the

postharvest disease of grapes (Leong, 2004).

Because natural fungicides are safe, effective, and

environmentally friendly, they have attracted people's

attention. With the deepening of relevant research,

these natural substances, especially natural plant

volatile substances, such as plant essential oils, are

used in the prevention and control of postharvest

diseases of fruits and vegetables (Rauha, 2000).

Essential oils are secondary metabolites synthesised

by plant themselves, and they play an important role

in the protection of plants such as antifungal and

insecticide (Bakkali, 2008). At present, there are

some studies on the antibacterial properties of plant

essential oils, but data on the effect of plant essential

oils on postharvest table grape are scarce.

In this study, we studied the antibacterial effect of

plant essential oils on white Fusarium, and screened

out the types of plant essential oils with the best

inhibitory effect on white Fusarium and their

optimum concentrations, which provided a

theoretical basis for the storage and preservation of

grapes after harvest.

Xie, Y., Zhu, J., Liu, H., Lian, H. and Liu, J.

In Vitro Screening of Antifungal Effects of Different Plant Essential Oils on White Fusarium.

DOI: 10.5220/0012012000003633

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine (ICBB 2022), pages 17-20

ISBN: 978-989-758-637-8

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Materials

Potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium were provided

by Shanghai Bio-way technology Co., Ltd.

(Shanghai, China). Essential oils were provided by

Ji'an Guoguang spice Co., Ltd. (Ji'an, Jiangxi, China).

2.2 Methods

White Fusarium was separated from the ripe grape

fruit, and the purified mycelium was inoculated on the

PDA medium, and cultivated at 26°C for 48h. The

essential oils were diluted with 5% Tween solution,

the diluted essential oils were mixed with unset PDA

medium in a centrifuge tube according to requested

concentration, poured into a petri dish, and each

essential oil repeated for three times. Then 0.7 cm

stipes were punched out by a puncher from the

prepared fungus-containing medium, and inoculated

them on the essential oils medium, the medium

without any essential oil but inoculated with white

Fusarium was control (CK). After inoculation, all

petri dishes were placed in a constant temperature

incubator with 26 °C, the inhibition ratio was

measured daily.

2.3 Statistical Analysis

Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 20.0

statistical software (IBM Corporation, Armonk, New

York, USA). The data was analyzed using one-way

analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the least

significant difference (LSD) test applied at 5%

significance interval. Inhibition ratio=





× 100%.

C: colony diameter of control, T: colony diameter of

treatments with essential oils.

3 TEST RESULTS AND

DISCUSSION

3.1 Effects of Different Essential Oils at

1000 μL/L on White Fusarium

It can be seen from table 1 that when the essential oil

concentration was 1000 μL/L, almost all 32 essential

oils hada certain antifungal effect, but the inhibition

ratio of 19 essential oils was low (< 50%). There were

8 kinds of essential oils with high antifungal rate, and

the antifungal ratio was 50%-90%. Only the essential

oils of asarum, litsea cubeba, clove, basil, oregano,

and cinnamon had 100% antifungal ratio, indicating

that 1000 μL/L of these five essential oils can kill

white Fusarium and can be used for further research.

Table 1: The antifungal effect of 32 essential oils at 1000 μL/L on white Fusarium of grape.

Essential oils Inhibition ratio % Essential oils Inhibition ratio %

Tea tree 3.70±0.08l Fructus fors

thiae 11.11±0.26

Folium eucal

ti 11.11±0.85

Rosemar

14.81±1.01

Lemon 16.67±0.97ij Rhubarb 18.52±0.94hi

Clausena lansium 18.52±0.84hi M

ristica fra

rans 20.37±0.96h

Mentha 20.37±0.56h Perilla leaf 20.37±1.09h

Pepper

25.93±1.06g

Lophatherum gracile 25.93±1.85g

Chamomile 27.78±0.73

Rhizoma atract

lodis 33.34±1.47f

wormwood leaf 35.19±2.12f Goldthrea

35.19±2.04f

Tangerine peel 35.19±2.16f Ginger 44.44±2.88e

Lavende

46.30±2.57e Rhizoma calami 53.71±2.14

Foeniculu

vulgare 59.26±3.71c Pogostemon cablin 61.11±3.48c

Tambac 64.81±3.08c

Citronella 74.07±5.84b

me 75.93±4.52b Garlic 77.78±5.09b

Asarum 83.33±5.46b Basil 100.00±0.00a

Litsea cubeba 100.00±0.00a Ore

ano 100.00±0.00a

Clove 100.00±0.00a Cinnamon 100.00±0.00a

ICBB 2022 - International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine

Different lowercase letters within a column

indicate significant differences based on one-way

analysis of variance and the least significant

difference test (95% confidence level). The same as

below.

3.2 Effects of 5 Essential Oils at 500

μL/L on White Fusarium of Grape

The concentration of the above five essential oils was

reduced to 500 μL/L. Table 2 showed that litsea

cubeba had no continuous antifungal effect. Clove

essential oil could completely inhibit the growth of

white Fusarium in the early stage, but the inhibition

ratio continues to decrease in the later stage. The

continuous inhibition rate of cinnamon, oregano, and

basil was consistently 100%, which implied that these

three essential oils were still effective in killing white

Fusarium at a concentration of 500 μL/L.

Table 2: The continuous antifungal effect of 5 essential oils at 500 μL/L on white Fusarium.

Essential oil

Inhibition ratio %

1d 2d 3d 4d

Litsea cubeba 0.00±0.02c 6.25±0.48e 3.25±0.19d 4.44±0.25e

Clove 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 68.75±3.89b 75.56±3.48b

Cinnamon 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a

Oregano 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a

Basil 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a

3.3 Effects of 3 Essential Oils at 250

μL/L on White Fusarium of Grape

In table 3, when the essential oil concentration was

reduced to 250 μL/L, cinnamon essential oil almost

lost its antifungal effect. Basil and oregano essential

oils had better antifungal effect at the beginning, but

the inhibition ratio decreased with time. The

inhibition ratio of oregano was always significantly

higher than those of basil essential oils.

Table 3: The continuous antifungal effect of 3 essential oils at 250 μL/L on white Fusarium.

Essential oil

Inhibition ratio %

Cinnamon 23.08±1.14b 12.56±0.67c 15.63±0.97c 2.22±0.02c

Basil 100.00±0.00a 25.09±1.29b 25.29±1.08b 17.78±0.86b

Ore

ano 100.00±0.00a 100.00±0.00a 93.75±5.94a 88.89±4.96a

4 CONCLUSION

Based on the results presented above, the conclusions

are obtained as below:

(1) Five essential oils such as litsea cubeba, clove,

basil, oregano, cinnamon at 1000 μL/L can

effectively kill white Fusarium of table grapes.

(2) Among 32 essential oils, oregano essential oil

has the best antifungal effect on white Fusarium, but

its minimum concentration should not be lower than

250 μL/L.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by Local Financial Funds of

National Agriculture Science and Technology Center,

In Vitro Screening of Antifungal Effects of Different Plant Essential Oils on White Fusarium

Chengdu (NASC2020AR05) and Sichuan Science

and Technology Program (2021JDRC0134).

REFERENCES

Bakkali, F., Averbeck, S., Averbeck, D., Zhiri, A., Idaomar,

M. (2008). Biological effects of essential oils--a review.

Food Chem. Toxicol., 46:446-475.

Leong, S.L., Hocking, A.D., Pitt, J.I. (2004) Occurrence of

fruit rot fungi (Aspergillus section Nigri) on some

drying varieties of irrigated grapes. Aust. J. Grape Wine

Res., 10: 83–88.

Rauha, J.P., Remes, S., Heinonen, M., Hopia, A.,

Kahkonen, M., Kujaja, T., Vuorela, P. (2000).

Antimicrobial effects of Finnish plant extracts

containing flavonoids and other phenolic compounds.

Int. J. Food Microbiol., 56:3–12.

Rinaldi, A., Villano, C., Lanzillxo, C., Tamburrino, A.,

Jourdes, M., Teissedre, P.L., Moio, L., Frusciante, L.,

Carputo, D., Aversano, R. (2017) Metabolic and RNA

profiling elucidates proanthocyanidins accumulation in

Aglianico grape. Food Chem.; 233: 52–59.

Sultan, Y., Magan, N. (2010), Mycotoxigenic fungi in

peanuts from different geographic regions of Egypt.

Mycotoxin Res., 26:133–140.

ICBB 2022 - International Conference on Biotechnology and Biomedicine