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Composition and Antifungal Activity of the Essential Oil of the Brazilian Chenopodium ambrosioides L.

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Abstract

The antifungal activity of essential oil (EO) from the Brazilian epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides L.) was evaluated by the poison food assay at concentrations of 0.3%, 0.1%, and 0.05% with eight postharvest deteriorating fungi (Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus glaucus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ochraceous, Colletotrichum gloesporioides, Colletotrichum musae, Fusarium oxysporum, and Fusarium semitectum). EO components were tentatively identified by Kováts retention indices (RIs) using gas chromatography and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Growth of all fungi was completely inhibited at 0.3% concentration, and by 90% to 100% at 0.1% concentration. The following 13 tentatively identified compounds (relative percent) accounted for 90.4% of the total volatile oil: α-terpinene (0.9), p-cymene (2.0), benzyl alcohol (0.3), p-cresol (0.3), p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (0.2), p-cimen-8-ol (0.6), α-terpineol (0.5), (Z)-ascaridole (61.4), piperitone (0.9), carvacrol (3.9), (E)-ascaridole (18.6), (E)-piperitol acetate (0.5), and (Z)-carvyl acetate (0.3). Autobiographic thin layer chromatography of the EO to separate the principal fungitoxic fraction yielded only one fraction that completely inhibited the growth of all test fungi at a concentration of 0.1%. This fraction was characterized by RIs and GC-MS presenting a composition (%) of p-cymene (25.4), (Z)-ascaridole (44.4), and (E)-ascaridole (30.2). The results suggest ascaridoles were the principal fungitoxic components of the EO.

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Acknowledgements

We thank CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa) for granting scholarships to the authors and to the technician Mr. Eduardo Pereira Rezende. This work was supported in part from grants from FAPEMIG (Fundação de Ampara de Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Pesquisa em Produtos Naturais, Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Avenida PH Rolfs, s/n, 36570-000, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Carolina Marangon Jardim, Gulab Newandram Jham & Marcelo Moreira Freire

  2. Clínica de Doenças de Plantas, Departamento de Fitopatologia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Vila Gianetti, casa 36, 36570-000, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Onkar Dev Dhingra

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  1. Carolina Marangon Jardim
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Correspondence to Gulab Newandram Jham.

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Jardim, C.M., Jham, G.N., Dhingra, O.D. et al. Composition and Antifungal Activity of the Essential Oil of the Brazilian Chenopodium ambrosioides L.. J Chem Ecol 34, 1213–1218 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-008-9526-z

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