ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF VOLATILE COMPONENTS GENERATED BY ESSENTIAL OILS AGAINST THE GENUS PENICILLIUM ISOLATED FROM BAKERY PRODUCTS

Abstract

The aim of this study was evaluation of the antifungal activity of 5 essential oils (EOs). We concretely used thyme, clove, basil, jasmine and rosemary EOs by vapor contact against the fungal species, namely Penicillium citrinum, P. chrysogenum, P. hordei, P. citreonigrum, and P. viridicatum and their ability to affect production of mycotoxins. Each fungus was inoculated in the centre on Czapek Yeast Autolysate Agar (CYA) dishes. Dishes were tightly sealed with parafilm and incubated for fourteen days at 25 ± 1 °C (three replicates were used for each treatment). Volatile phase effect of 50 μl of the essential oils was found to inhibit on growth of Penicillium spp.. Complete growth inhibition of the isolates by EOs of thyme and clove was observed. The EO of basil had antifungal effect on growth of P. citreonigrum only after 3rd and 7th day of the incubation at concentration 100 % of EO, like a P. viridicatum, which was inhibited by basil EO (100 %) in comparison with control sets. Data was evaluated statistically by 95.0 % Tukey HSD test. In this study we also tested potentional effect of EOs to affect production of mycotoxins of tested Penicillium isolates which are potential toxigenic fungi. After 14 days of incubation with EOs (100 %) with control sets, they were screened for a production of mycotoxins by TLC chromatography. Results showed non affecting production of mycotoxins by tested EOs.
Conclusions indicate that volatile phase of combinations of thyme oil and clove oil showed good potential in the inhibition of growth of Penicillium spp. EOs should find a practical application in the inhibition of the fungal mycelial growth in some kind of the food.