Abstract:
Spices have a great potential to be developed as new and safe antimicrobial agents.
The present study tested the antifungal activity of methanol, ethanol, chloroform,
hot water extract of nutmeg (Myristica Fragrans) seed, mace and fruit peel at
different concentration levels (5%, 10% and 20%) against Aspergilus niger and
Fusarium oxyporum. The plant materials were selected at three maturity stages of
two months, four months and fully mature stage. The agar dilution technique was
used and the effect of different concentrations of plant extracts on radial growth of
reference fungi was evaluated. Inhibition percentage was calculated by using the
equation of: Inhibition % = [(C-T) / C] X 100, where, C: diameter of the control
colony and T: diameter of treated colony. Maximum inhibition of 100% against F.
oxyporum was found at 10% and 20% concentrations of ethanol and methanol
extracts of fully matured seed and mace extracts except fruit peel. There was a clear
increase of antifungal activity of all extracts plant materials against F. oxyporum
with their increasing maturity. Maximum inhibition of 100% against A. niger was
found at 10% and 20% concentrations of ethanol and methanol extracts of fully
matured mace. However, seed extracts showed favorable condition for growth of A.
niger with increasing maturity while mace and peel showed increasing inhibitory
action with increasing maturity. It was found that mace samples showed
encouraging results indicating potential use for management of F. oxyporum and A.
niger by showing the highest inhibition at all concentration levels especially at the
fully maturity stage.
