Inhibition of afatoxin biosynthesis in Aspergillus favus by phenolic compounds extracted of Piper betle L.

Background and objectives: food contamination by afatoxins is an important food safety concern for agricultural products. in order to identify and develop novel antifungal agents,several plant extracts and isolated compounds have been evaluated for their bioactivities. anti-infectious activity of piper betle used in traditional medicine of malaysia has been reported previously.materials and methods: crude methanol extract from p. betel powdered leaves was partitioned between chloroform and water. the fractions were tested against a. favus upmc 89,a strong afatoxin producing strain. inhibition of mycelial growth and afatoxin biosynthesis were tested by disk diffusion and macrodillution techniques respectively. the presence of afatoxin was determined by thin-layer chromatography (tlc) and fluorescence spectroscopy techniques using afb1 standard. the chloroform soluble compounds were identified using hplc-tandem mass spectrometry technique. results: the results,evaluated by measuring the mycelial growth and quantification of afatoxin b1(aflb1) production in broth medium revealed that chloroform soluble compounds extract from p. betle dried leaves was able to block the afatoxin biosynthesis pathway at concentration of 500μg/ml without a significant effect on mycelium growth. in analyzing of this effective fractions using hplc-ms2 with esi ionization technique,11 phenolic compounds were identified. conclusion: the results showed that the certain phenolic compounds are able to decline the afatoxin production in a. favus with no significant effect on the fungus mycelia growth. the result also suggested p. betle could be used as potential antitoxin product.