Fusarium culmorum, a fungal pathogen of small grain cereals, produces 4-deoxynivalenol and its acetylated derivatives that may cause toxicoses on humans or animals consuming contaminated food or feed. Natural and natural-like compounds belonging to phenol and hydroxylated biphenyl structural classes were tested in vitro to determine their activity on vegetative growth and trichothecene biosynthesis by F. culmorum. Most of the compounds tested at 1.5 or 1.0 mM reduced 3acetyl-4-deoxynivalenol production by over 70% compared to the control, without affecting fungal growth significantly. Furthermore, several compounds retained their ability to inhibit toxin in vitro production at the lowest concentrations of 0.5 and 0.25 mM. Magnolol 27 showed fungicidal activity even at 0.1 mM. No linear correlation was observed between antioxidant properties of the compounds and their ability to inhibit fungal growth and mycotoxigenic capacity. A guaiacyl unit in the structure may play a key role in trichothecene inhibition.

No abstract

Aflatoxin contamination of grains and agro-products is a serious food safety issue and a significant economic concern worldwide. In the present study, the effects of eugenol on Aspergillus parasiticus growth and aflatoxin production were studied in relation to the expression of some essential genes involved in aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway. The fungus was cultured in presence of serial two-fold concentrations of eugenol (15.62-500 μg mL(-1)) for 3 days at 28 °C. Mycelia dry weight was determined as an index of fungal growth, while aflatoxin production was assessed by high performance liquid chromatography. The expression of aflatoxin biosynthetic genes including ver-1, nor-1, pksA, omtA and aflR were evaluated by real-time PCR. Eugenol strongly inhibited A. parasiticus growth in the range of 19.16-95.83 % in a dose-dependent manner. Aflatoxin B1 production was also inhibited by the compound in the range of 15.07-98.0 %. The expressions of ver-1, nor-1, pksA, omtA and aflR genes were significantly suppressed by eugenol at concentrations of 62.5 and 125 μg mL(-1). These results indicate that eugenol may be considered as a good candidate to control toxigenic fungal growth and the subsequent contamination of food, feed and agricultural commodities by carcinogenic aflatoxins.

No abstract

No abstract