Abstract
Antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic activities of five methanolic plant extracts were evaluated against the toxigenic Aspergillus flavus isolate. Extract of Punica granatum showed the highest antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic activities followed by Zingiber officinalis. P. granatum extract absolutely arrested aflatoxin B-1 production at 5 mg/ml and inhibited 100% the mycelial growth of A. flavus at 10 mg/ml. Zingiber officinalis and Olea europaea extracts showed a moderate antifungal activities and exhibited a significant antiaflatoxigenic efficiency as they completely inhibited aflatoxin B-1 production at 15 mg/ml. Lantana camara extract showed a weak antifungal activities while no effect was detected with Allium sativum L. The analysis of plant extracts by GC/MS showed that P. granatum extract was mainly composed by ellagic acid (37.01%), pedunculagin (6.40%), punicalugin (5.64%) and polyphenol as lumicolchicine (4.68%) while components of Z. officinalis were gingerol (46.85%), cedrene (8.39%), zingiberene (7.40%) and alpha-curcumene (7.32%) respectively. The findings obtained from this study may contribute to development of potentially effective and environmentally safer alternative fungicides to protect the spoilage of wheat grains from the toxigenic A. flavus.