Abstract
In recent years, the study of essential oils as antifungal alternatives and their encapsulation to increase their properties for greater effects has been tested. In this work, nanoparticles of chitosan–Schinus molle L. essential oil (CS-PEO-Np) with a size of 260 ± 31.1 nm were obtained by ionic gelation and evaluated in some growth phases of Aspergillus flavus, a toxigenic fungus. At a concentration of 250 μg/mL of CS-PEO-Np, the A. flavus mycelial growth was inhibited at 97.1% with respect to control, at 96 h of incubation; the germination and viability of spores were inhibited at 74.8 and 40%, respectively, after exposure to 500 μg/mL of these nanomaterials, at 12 h of incubation. The fluorescence images of stained spores with DAPI showed the affectations caused by nanoparticles in the cell membrane, vacuoles and vacuolar content, cell wall, and nucleic acids. For both nanoparticles, CS-Np and CS-PEO-Np, no mutagenic effect was observed in Salmonella Typhimurium; also, the phytotoxic assay showed low-to-moderate toxicity toward seeds, which was dependent on the nanoparticle’s concentration. The acute toxicity of CS-PEO-Np to A. salina nauplii was considered low in comparison to CS-Np (control), which indicates that the incorporation of Schinus molle essential oil into nanoparticles of chitosan is a strategy to reduce the toxicity commonly associated with nanostructured materials. The nanoparticulated systems of CS-PEO-Np represent an effective and non-toxic alternative for the control of toxigenic fungi such as A. flavus by delaying the initial growth stage.
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Data availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- PEO:
-
Schinus molle L. essential oil
- CS-Np:
-
Nanoparticles of chitosan
- CS-PEO-Np:
-
Nanoparticles of chitosan-PEO
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The authors thank the National Laboratory of Applied Microbiology of the Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at Ensenada, Baja California (CICESE) for its support in the structural and morphological analysis.
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This work was supported by the National Council of Humanities Science and Technology (grant number 219786). Plascencia-Jatomea M has received research support from CONAHCyT.
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M.P.J., and M.O.C.R. contributed to conceptualization; A.K.L.M., R.R.M.P., J.L.M., and F.R.F. were involved in methodology; A.K.L.M. performed the experiments with the help of R.I.S.M. The first draft of the manuscript was written by A.K.L.M and M.O.C.R and all authors commented on this version. M.P.J. and M.O.C.R. contributed mostly in final shaping and improving the manuscript with English and reference editing. All authors read and agreed to the final version of the manuscript. Acquisition and project administration were done by M.P.J.
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Plascencia-Jatomea, M., Cortez-Rocha, M.O., Rodríguez-Félix, F. et al. Synthesis and toxicological study of chitosan–pirul (Schinus molle L.) essential oil nanoparticles on Aspergillus flavus. Arch Microbiol 206, 133 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-024-03859-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-024-03859-y