Chemical composition and in vitro control of agricultural plant pathogens by the essential oil and various extracts of Nandina domestica Thunb.

BACKGROUND: The aims of this study were to examine the chemical composition of the essential oil isolated from the floral parts of Nandina domestica Thunb. by hydrodistillation, and to test the efficacy of essential oil and various leaf extracts (n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol) as an antifungal potential against a panel of agricultural plant pathogens. RESULTS: The GC-MS analysis determined that 79 compounds, which represented 87.06% of total oil, were present in the oil containing mainly 1-indolizino carbazole (19.65%), 2-pentanone (16.4%), mono phenol (12.1%), aziridine (9.01%), methylcarbinol (4.6%), ethanone (3.3%), furfural (2.96%), 3,5-dimethylpyrazole (1.29%) and 2(5H)-furanone (1.32%). The oil (1000 ppm disc(-1)) and the leaf extracts (1500 ppm disc(-1)) revealed remarkable antifungal effect against Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium solani, Phytophthora capsici, Colletotrichum capsici, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Botrytis cinerea and Rhizoctonia solani in the growth inhibition range of 53.3-64.3% and 33.3-56.0%, respectively, along with their respective values for mimimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranging from 125 to 1000 mu g mL(-1) and 500 to 2000 mu g mL(-1). The values for minimal fungicidal concentration (MFC) of the oil and extracts were obtained in the range of 125 to 1000 mu g mL(-1) and 500 to 2000 ig mL(-1), respectively. The essential oil also had a strong detrimental effect on spore germination of all the plant pathogens tested along with concentration as well as time-dependent kinetic inhibition of B. cinerea. CONCLUSION: The results obtained in this study demonstrate that N. domestica mediated oil and extracts could become potential alternatives to synthetic fungicides for controlling certain important agricultural plant pathogenic fungi. (C) 2008 Society of Chemical Industry