Potent Antifungal Activity of Essential Oil from Morinda Citrifolia Fruits Rich in Short-chain Fatty Acids

Abstract

The fruit of the Morinda citrifolia species popularly known as "noni" has been widely used in folk medicine for diverse therapeutic purposes including in the treatment of infectious diseases. Given this, we tested the essential oil from M. citrifolia fruits obtained by hydrodistillation against fungi and bacteria. The oil was rich in short-chain fatty acids: octanoic acid (38.7%) and hexanoic acid (20.0%) were identified as the major constituents after analysis of oil by GC/MS. The oil showed antimicrobial activity against all the microorganisms tested, mainly against fungi Candida albicans and C. utilise with minimal inhibitory concentration of 39 and 78 μg.mL −1 , respectively. The antimicrobial potential of the oil was drastically reduced after it was subjected to the esterification reaction, indicating that the carboxyl group is responsible for the strong oil activity.

In Vitro and In Silico Pharmacological and Cosmeceutical Potential of Ten Essential Oils from Aromatic Medicinal Plants from the Mascarene Islands

“…In the present study, M. citrifolia EO was found to be effective against both Candida species, with an MIC of 0.25 mg/mL. This was in agreement with the study by Holanda et al [36], which also reported the high efficacy of M. citrifolia fruit EO against Candida species, namely C. albicans and C. utilise, with MIC values of 39 and 78 µg/mL, respectively. Remarkably, the same major components, octanoic (38.7%) and hexanoic (20.0%) acids, were revealed in the EO, as was previously reported by Jugreet and Mahomoodally (2020) for M. citrifolia EO investigated in the present study [11], although they varied in their percentages (octanoic acid (78.9%); hexanoic acid (11.3%)).…”

Potential Action Mechanism and Inhibition Efficacy of Morinda citrifolia Essential Oil and Octanoic Acid against Stagonosporopsis cucurbitacearum Infestations

“…Based on the results obtained from phytochemical analysis, the octanoic acids, hexanoic acids, and isobutyl pent-4-enyl carbonate are the main compounds (>91%) in M. citrifolia EO, as reported in previous studies [5,6]. However, it was also demonstrated in other investigations [27] that these same compounds represent less than 13% of the EO composition, which shows a strong variation in their chemical composition and consequently in their biological activity.…”

“…Bioassays were performed in commercial potato-dextrose-agar culture medium contained in Petri dishes (70 mm in diameter). Five concentrations (1,5,10,20, and 40 mg/mL) of noni EO and octanoic acid were diluted in a mixture of distilled water and 1.0 % (v/v) Tween 20 (Êxodo Científica, Hortolândia, São Paulo, Brazil). The test solutions were applied (at a volume of 200 µL) to cover the inner surfaces of Petri dishes (9 cm in diameter).…”

“…Noni, Morinda citrifolia L., a member of the Rubiaceae family, is among the plants that produce EOs that can act as potential fungicides without detrimentally affecting beneficial fungi [3,4]. Although previous investigations suggested that the fungicidal activities of M. citrifolia essential oil may rely on the actions of its major components-i.e., the octanoic and hexanoic acids [5,6], the confirmation of such statements still requires investigations using other fungal species, and with the emergence of new in silico analysis tools, such as molecular docking, it is possible to define potential targets for the major and minor compounds of EOs [7,8], including those of M. citrifolia.…”

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oil from Piper marginatum leaves obtained by hydrodistillation in pH4, pH7 and pH10

“…The strong antimicrobial activity observed for the pH4-EO sample may be associated with the presence of the major compound α-santonin, a sesquiterpene that has been used as an effective drug against infectious diseases caused by worms, which was first isolated from the flower bud of Artemisia santonica (Wang et al, 2019). Activity for the pH4-EO sample can also be attributed to the presence of 5-methylhexanoic and nonanoic acids as oils rich in short-chain fatty acids exhibit strong antimicrobial activity (Holanda et al, 2020). The activities of the pH7-EO and pH10-OE samples were considered moderate to weak for all microorganisms tested, with a MIC that varied between 625 µg/ml and 2500 µg/ml for both oils.…”