Antifungal activities of essential oils of citrus trees grown in south of Vietnam

Abstract

Citrus oils have been recognized as the abundance source of potentially active chemical substances. They contain various active compounds possessing antifungal activities. The advantage of essential oils is natural so they cannot be also harmful to human’s health. Essential oils from plant have been reported to be effective against many pathogenic fungi in recent years. The samples of Citrus fruits viz., pomelo (Citrus grandis Osbeck), orange (Citrus sinensis), mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) were collected from Thu Duc wholesale market and their peel oils were obtained by cold pressing method. The antifungal properties of Citrus peel oils were evaluated using agar dilution method against Aspergillus niger, Mucor hiemalis, Penicillium expansum, and Fusarium proliferatum and the percentage of growth inhibition in different concentration of Citrus essential oils (ranging from 250ppm and 2000ppm) was calculated. All the oils showed antifungal activity against the moulds. Pomelo essential oil was the best inhibitor of Fusarium proliferatum, Penicillium expansum and Mucor hiemalis while orange essential oil was the most effective against Aspergillus niger.