Avaliação da atividade antifúngica do óleo essencial de Syzygium cumini

Abstract

Food products are highly susceptible to several contaminations, however, fungal growth is highlighted due to large economic losses and still be potential producers of mycotoxins, posing a risk to human and animal health. Among the foods with the highest contamination, the grains stand out because they are susceptible to fungal contamination both in storage stage and in the field. Aspergillus flavus, aflatoxin producer, is one of the largest biological contaminants in food, and may be present in the collection, storage and processing of these. Due to the incidence of fungi and their secondary metabolites, it is necessary to carry out prevention methods in order to reduce their potential risks to human health. In this way, the essential oils are promising because they present a large number of bioactive compounds and are an excellent alternative to synthetic fungicides. In this sense, the objective of the present work was to extract the essential oil of Syzygium cumini by hydrodistillation and evaluated its antifungal effect on Aspergillus flavus by determining the minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration. In the chromatographic analysis, 16 compounds with predominance of monoterpenes were identified, with emphasis on α-Pinene (19.56%), Isocaryophyllene (16.92%), Caryophyllene Oxide (15.55%) and Humulene (89%). The Sysygium cumini essential oil had a minimum inhibitory concentration of 625 μg / mL against Aspergillus flavus.