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Antifungal effects of citronella oil against Aspergillus niger ATCC 16404

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

Essential oils are aromatic oily liquids obtained from some aromatic plant materials. Certain essential oils such as citronella oil contain antifungal activity, but the antifungal effect is still unknown. In this study, we explored the antifungal effect of citronella oil with Aspergillus niger ATCC 16404. The antifungal activity of citronella oil on conidia of A. niger was determined by poisoned food technique, broth dilution method, and disc volatility method. Experimental results indicated that the citronella oil has strong antifungal activity: 0.125 (v/v) and 0.25 % (v/v) citronella oil inhibited the growth of 5 × 105 spore/ml conidia separately for 7 and 28 days while 0.5 % (v/v) citronella oil could completely kill the conidia of 5 × 105 spore/ml. Moreover, the fungicidal kinetic curves revealed that more than 90 % conidia (initial concentration is 5 × 105 spore/ml) were killed in all the treatments with 0.125 to 2 % citronella oil after 24 h. Furthermore, with increase of citronella oil concentration and treatment time, the antifungal activity was increased correspondingly. The 0.5 % (v/v) concentration of citronella oil was a threshold to kill the conidia thoroughly. The surviving conidia treated with 0.5 to 2 % citronella oil decreased by an order of magnitude every day, and no fungus survived after 10 days. With light microscope, scanning electron microscope, and transmission electron microscope, we found that citronella oil could lead to irreversible alteration of the hyphae and conidia. Based on our observation, we hypothesized that the citronella oil destroyed the cell wall of the A. niger hyphae, passed through the cell membrane, penetrated into the cytoplasm, and acted on the main organelles. Subsequently, the hyphae was collapsed and squashed due to large cytoplasm loss, and the organelles were severely destroyed. Similarly, citronella oil could lead to the rupture of hard cell wall and then act on the sporoplasm to kill the conidia. Nevertheless, the citronella oil provides a potential of being a safe and environmentally friendly fungicide in the future.

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Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the support by Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Project (2009B011000011, 2011B010400039), the National Natural Science Fund of China (U1133003, 41176104, 20971028), and Guangdong Natural Science Fund (10151007002000000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Wen-Ru Li & Shun-Shan Duan

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Microbial Culture Collection and Application, State Key Laboratory of South China Applied Microbiology (Ministry-Guangdong Province Jointly Breeding Base), Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangzhou, 510070, China

    Wen-Ru Li, Qing-Shan Shi, You-Sheng Ouyang & Yi-Ben Chen

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  1. Wen-Ru Li
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  2. Qing-Shan Shi
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  3. You-Sheng Ouyang
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  4. Yi-Ben Chen
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  5. Shun-Shan Duan
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Correspondence to You-Sheng Ouyang or Shun-Shan Duan.

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Li, WR., Shi, QS., Ouyang, YS. et al. Antifungal effects of citronella oil against Aspergillus niger ATCC 16404. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 97, 7483–7492 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-012-4460-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-012-4460-y

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