Aqueous and organic extracts of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. inhibit themycelia growth of fungi
R. HAOUALA , S. HAWALA , A. EL-AYEB , R. KHANFIR , N. BOUGHANMI
DOI:
Received January 09, 2007,Revised May 06, 2008, Accepted , Available online
Volume 20,2008,Pages 1453-1457
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Aqueous extracts from various plant parts of fenugreek (3%) (aerial parts: leaves and stems (LS), roots (R), ground seeds (GS) and
not ground seeds (NGS)) and petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and methanolic fractions of the aerial parts were assayed to determine
their antifungal potential against Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium graminearum, Alternaria sp., Pythium aphanidermatum, and Rhizoctinia
solani. All fenugreek plant parts showed antifungal potential and the magnitude of their inhibitory e ects was species and plant parts
dependent. R extract was shown less toxic (30.38%), whereas NGS extract expressed the strongest inhibition, with an average of
71.44%, followed by GS (58.56%) and LS (57.1%). Screening indicated that P. aphanidermatum was the most resistant species, with an
average inhibition of 34.5%. F. graminearum, Alternaria sp. and R. solani were the most sensitive species, and were similarly inhibited
(63.5%). The stability test indicated that the aqueous extracts of all plant parts lost approximately 50% of their relative activity after one
month of storage at 4°C, whilst they lost 60%–90% of their activity when stored at ambient temperature for one month. The antifungal
activity resided mainly in the methanol fraction and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of methanol fraction witch caused
total inhibition of R. solani and Alternaria sp. was 60 g/ml. Results of current study suggested that the constituents of Trigonella
foenum-graecum have potential against harmful pathogenic fungi. Therefore, fenugreek could be an important source of biologically
active compounds useful for developing better new antifungal drugs.
