Antifungal activity of plant extracts against Arthrinium sacchari and Chaetomium funicola.

Various plant extracts were examined for antifungal activity with the objective of improving the commercial sterility of aseptically filled tea beverage products in PET bottles. When the hot water extract and the methanol extract of 29 samples were measured for their antifungal activity against Arthrinium sacchari M001 and Chaetomium funicola M002 strains, five samples, Acer nikoense, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Lagerstroemia speciosa, Psidium guajava and Thea sinensis, showed high activity. Of these, the extracts from A. nikoense, G. glabra and T. sinensis were fractionated by extraction with CHCl3, and the CHCl3-soluble fractions from G. glabra showed antifungal activity with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) between 62.5 and 125 microg/ml against the above-mentioned two fungi. When the EtOAc-soluble fraction of A. nikoense was used, the MIC against A. sacchari M001 was 62.5 microg/ml. However, none of the fractions from A. nikoense or T. sinensis showed high activity against C. funicola M002 and their MICs were greater than 500 microg/ml. A licorice preparation made from the commercially available oil-based extract of G. glabra showed a low MIC of 25 microg/ml against five tested strains of filamentous fungi, but not against Aspergillus fumigatus M008, in a blended tea. Consequently, the possibility of adding a licorice preparation made from the oil-based extract of G. glabra to tea beverages (aseptically filled into PET bottles) was suggested.