PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING, CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE ANTIFUNGAL EFFECT OF FLAVONOIDS FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF ZIZIPHUS LOTUS OF SOUTH-WEST ALGERIA

Abstract

The biodiversity of our country allows us to medicinal plants used in the new research directions most of the plants used in traditional medicine for centuries. Because of the resistance of the proliferation of parasitic fungi in the food industries, plant diseases, this work aims to test the antifungal activity of a plant heritage which is the Ziziphus lotus. The phytochemical screening allowed us to see that the flavonoids extracts of leaves, roots, and seeds covered in this study are rich in bioactive substances namely alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and terpenes. Antifungal activity was tested using two methods; radial growth on solid media and evaluation of biomass on liquid environments against Aspergillus flavus-parasiticus and Aspergillus ochraceus. The results of the evaluation of the radial growth show that the extract of flavonoids of the best roots given percent inhibition of 73.3% against A. ochraceus has 4.37×10−4  g/ml concentration, followed by extraction of flavonoids grains that gave an inhibition of 55% against the Aspergillus flavus-parasiticus has 1.091×10−3 g/ml concentration. However, another extract of Z. lotus gave a fairly significant inhibition of fungal strains studied very limited. The results of the evaluation of biomass on liquid medium show the efficacy vis-à-vis studied extracts of the strains tested in accordance with the increase of the concentration thereof. The best inhibition was recorded for extraction of flavonoids grain against the two strains tested 61.92% for Aspergillus flavus-parasiticus and 84.33% for A. ochraceus 1.091×10−3 g/ml concentration.

Keywords: Ziziphus lotus, Extracts flavonoids, Antifungal activity, Aspergillus flavus-parasiticus, Aspergillus ochraceus.