Abstract

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION, ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIMYCOTOXIGENIC ACTIVITIES OF EUCALYPTUS CITRIODORA HOOK. ESSENTIAL OIL

Akbar Basha Roshan, Prithviraj Jayakumar and Narasimha Murthy K.*

ABSTRACT

Mycotoxins, toxic by-products of fungal metabolism, are commonly found in staple foods such as maize. Aflatoxins, a type of mycotoxin, pose significant health risks. High exposure to aflatoxins can lead to fatal illness in both humans and animals. Furthermore, chronic interaction to aflatoxins is connected with an increased liver cancer risk in humans, and also causes growth depression and immune suppression in domestic animals. Despite the known risks, there is a shortage of complete understanding regarding the potential health hazards of consuming food contaminated with aflatoxins. The current research designed to assess the effectiveness of Eucalyptus citriodora essential oil (ECEO) in combating microbial and aflatoxin contamination. Through Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) study was reported that ECEO contains 20 phytochemical constituents, with Citronellal (76.13%), Citronellol (10.18%), and 6-Octen-1-ol, 3, 7-dimethyl-, acetate (3.23%) identified as the major components. The ECEO confirmed broad spectrum antifungal action against four seed borne pathogenic molds such as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium verticillioides, and Rhizopus stolonifer and four foodborne bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes at 20μl/ml, as indicated by percent mycelial growth inhibition (%MI) and the Zone of Inhibition (ZOI). Furthermore, ECEO exhibited significant inhibition of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) from toxigenic isolates of A. flavus at10μl/ml. These results recommend that ECEO holds potential as a potential solution for controlling mold and mycotoxin infection in feed and food products.

Keywords: Aspergillus niger, Aflatoxin B1, Eucalyptus citriodora, antimicrobial activity, ver-1 and omt-A genes.