Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Inhibition of fungal aflatoxin B1 biosynthesis by diverse botanically-derived polyphenols

Wei Zhou, Liang-Bin Hu, Yang Zhao, Miao-Yan Wang, Hao Zhang, Hai-Zhen Mo

School of Food Science, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang 453003, China;

For correspondence:- Hai-Zhen Mo Email: mohz@163.com Tel:+8603733693519

Received: 28 October 2014 Accepted: 11 March 2015 Published: 26 April 2015

Citation: Zhou W, Hu L, Zhao Y, Wang M, Zhang H, Mo H. Inhibition of fungal aflatoxin B1 biosynthesis by diverse botanically-derived polyphenols. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(4):605-609 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i4.7

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To identify and characterize the capacity of diverse botanically-derived polyphenols to inhibit aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production by Aspergillus flavus.

Methods: A tea-derived polyphenol mixture and numerous individual polyphenols were tested for their effects on A. flavus growth and AFB1 production. Fungal spores were cultured for 60 h with polyphenols (range 0 R10; 1,000 µg/mL). The fungi were enumerated by hemocytometry, and AFB1 in culture supernatants was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

Results: Neither the tea-derived polyphenol mixture nor individual polyphenol compound, except quercetin, inhibited A. flavus growth. Quercetin detectably inhibited growth at 800 µg/mL; none of the remaining polyphenols inhibited fungal proliferation, even at 1,000 μg/mL. However, catechin mixture and all individual polyphenols differentially inhibited fungal AFB1 biosynthesis. Non-ester catechin derivatives revealed stronger inhibitory activity than ester derivatives.

Conclusion: Quercetin exhibits the strongest inhibitory effect on AFB1 production and is the only test compound that also inhibits fungal proliferation. Botanically-derived polyphenols are, therefore, promising reagents for controlling fungal contamination and associated toxic aflatoxin deposition in harvested crops and in food processing operations.

Keywords: Polyphenols, Quercetin, Aflatoxin B1, Inhibition, Antioxidation