Evaluation of chemically characterized Citrus sinensis L. essential oil as botanical fungitoxicant against fungal deterioration of stored mustard oilseeds
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21276/pt.2025.v2.i4.7Keywords:
Citrus sinensis, essential oil, antifungal, Aspergillus flavus, DL-Limonene, Brassica compestris, oilseedsAbstract
The study deals with the bioactive efficacy of Citrus sinensis L. essential oil (CSEO) against some storage fungi contaminating stored oilseeds of mustard (Brassica compestris L.). The average pH and percent moisture content of collected stored oilseeds of mustard ranged from 5.36 to 5.43 and 9.22 to 10.03%, respectively. Stored oilseeds of mustard were found associated with various storage moulds. During mycological screening of oilseeds, a total of 642 fungal isolates was recovered from three different stored samples. The percent occurrence frequency of sample 3 was found to be the highest (37.85%), whereas sample 1 exhibited the lowest (29.12%). The highest cumulative percent relative density was recorded in Cladosporium sp. (21.65%), followed by Aspergillus niger (18.06%) and Aspergillus flavus (11.37%), while the lowest relative density was found in Aspergillus nidulans (1.40%), followed by 1.86% in both Aspergillus candidus and Aspergillus terreus. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of CSEO against Aspergillus flavus was recorded at 100 µg/ml. CSEO also exhibited broad-spectrum fungitoxicity and was also comparable to the synthetic fungicide diphenylamine as well as having significant antioxidant activity (IC50 22.82). The chemotype of CSEO was determined by GC/GC-MS analysis, which showed 26 constituents. DL-Limonene was found to be the major component (90.44%), followed by linalyl acetate (2.80%) and β-myrcene (1.71%), whereas other compounds were in traces. The prospects of exploitation of CSEO as an acceptable plant-based additive in qualitative as well as quantitative control of biodeterioration of stored oilseeds have been discussed.
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