Anti fungal activity of alkaloid extract of Erythrina coralloides A. DC. against five phyto pathogen fungi

The genus Erythrina (Leguminoseae) produces a high variety of secondary metabolites, such as flavonoids, isoflavonoids and alkaloids with high pharmacological, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities [1]. The African species of Erythrina have been investigated in connection with the anti microbial properties of the isoflavonoids but in the American species there is not information about the antimicrobial activity of their constituents The aim of this work was to assess the antifungal activity of the alkaloid extract of E. coralloides. The alkaloid extract was obtained from one month age seedlings grew in a controlled environment chamber at 25^oC, relative humidity of 80% and 12h of light. The seedlings were lyophilised, and ground to a fine powder and then mixed with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid. The mixture was filtered and the pH was adjusted to 8 with NH₄OH. The filtrate was extracted with dichloromethane (three times) and the solvent was evaporated under vacuum [3]. The antifungal activity evaluation of the crude extract showed that Penicillium sp. had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 6000µg/L, Alternaria solani, Botrytis cinerea and Fusarium oxysporum of 4000µg/L and Monilia fructicola of 2000µg/L. It is proposed that the interaction of the various alkaloids detected in the extract could cause the growth inhibition of the fungi

Acknowledgements: To the mycology laboratory of the Phytopathology Department of the Colegio de Postgraduados by the donation of the fungi.

References: 1. García-Mateos, R. et al. (2001), Econ. Bot. 55: 391–400. 2. Majinda, R.T. et al. (2001), Pure Appl. Chem. 73: 1191–1208. 3. San Miguel-Chávez, R. et al. (2003), Biotech. Lett. 25 (13): 1055–1059.