Microwave irradiation enhances the in vitro antifungal activity of citrus by-product aqueous extracts against Alternaria alternata

Abstract

The effect of two lemon by-product aqueous extracts at different concentrations (14, 7, 3.5 and 1 mg mL(-1)) was tested against the invitro growth of Alternaria alternata. Prior to extraction, one batch of by-product was dehydrated by freeze-drying (untreated by-product), while the other batch was treated by microwave irradiation in conjunction with freeze-drying (microwave-treated by-product). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed for the identification of individual phenolic compounds with potent antifungal activities. Both lemon by-product aqueous extracts inhibited the mycelial growth and suppressed the spore germination of the fungus in a concentration-dependent manner. In general, the extracts obtained from the microwave-treated lemon by-product displayed enhanced antifungal activity than those obtained from the untreated one. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that both lemon by-product extracts affected the hyphal morphology of the fungus. The antifungal activity of the extracts was attributed to their phenolic acid and ascorbic acid contents.

Keywords

Antifungal activity; conidia; lemon waste; mycelial growth inhibition; phenolic compounds; sweet cherry

Published in

International Journal of Food Science and Technology
2018, volume: 53, number: 6, pages: 1510-1517
Publisher: WILEY

SLU Authors

• Papoutsis, Konstantinos

  • University of Newcastle

UKÄ Subject classification

Food Engineering
Food Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ijfs.13732

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/131923