Antifungal, aflatoxin inhibitory and free radical-scavenging activities of some medicinal plants extracts

Abstract

The antifungal, aflatoxin inhibitory and antioxidant activity of methanol-aqueous extract (2:1) of 62 medicinal plants was explored. Based on the antifungal results, the extracts of 25 plants showed more than 50% antifungal activity and were further investigated for their aflatoxin inhibition and antioxidant properties. Methanol-aqueous extracts of Phyllanthus emblica and Terminalia chebula fruits caused 100% inhibition of aflatoxin production by the toxigenic strain of Aspergillus flavus in semisynthetic medium at 1mg/mL. In addition, P. emblica (IC 50=4.1μg/mL) and T. chebula (IC 50=6.9μg/mL) fruits extracts exhibited strong antioxidant activity during the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging assay in comparison with butylated hydroxytoluene (IC 50=8.1μg/mL) and butylated hydroxyanisole (IC 50=6μg/mL). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.