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Cymbopogom Citratus Essential Oils: A Promising Source of Antifungals Against Panax Notoginseng-Associated Pathogenic Fungi

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Abstract

Due to the great threat of chemical pesticides to the ecosystem environment, it is a long-term goal to find environmentally friendly green pesticides. Essential oils (EOs) are considered weapons in plant chemical defense and are important sources of green pesticides. Therefore, the antifungal effects and action mechanisms of Cymbopogom citratus (C. citratus) EOs against seven kinds of Panax notoginseng (P. notoginseng) pathogenic fungi were investigated. Oxford Cup results showed that C. citratus EOs had an excellent detraction effects against seven fungi of P. notoginseng. Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) was used to construct the chemical profiles of C. citratus EOs, disclosed that the main categories are terpenes and oxygenated terpenes. In addition, compared with the hymexazol, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) showed that EOs and their main components had strong antifungal activities. Besides, EOs had a synergistic effect with hymexazol (a chemical pesticide). The antifungal mechanism of C. citratus EOs was studied by using Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum) as the dominant pathogen. C. citratus EOs may affect the metabolism of fungi and induce mycotoxins to destroy the cell wall to achieve antifungal effects. Finally, EOs were found to significantly retard P. notoginseng infection by F. oxysporum. According to our research, C. citratus EOs are potential green antifungal agent that can be used in the cultivation of P. notoginseng.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82060683), Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department- Applied Basic Research Joint Special Funds of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine [2019FF002(-003), 202101AZ070001(-047)], and College of Chinese Materia Medica and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Southern Medicinal Utilization, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine (202105AG070012YQ01).

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82060683), Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department- Applied Basic Research Joint Special Funds of Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine [2019FF002(-003), 202101AZ070001(-047)], and College of Chinese Materia Medica and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Southern Medicinal Utilization, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine (202105AG070012YQ01).

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  1. Jing Yang and Tian T. Li have contributed equally to this paper.

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  1. School of Chinese Materia Medica, Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine, Kunming, 650500, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Yang, Tian T. Li, Ying Y. Huo, Heng Y. Huang, Qing H. Meng, Fu R. Xu & Xian Dong

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  1. Jing Yang
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Contributions

XD designed the experiment. JY, TTL, and YYH performed the experiments. XD and JY analyzed the data and wrote the article. HYH and FRX commented the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xian Dong.

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Yang, J., Li, T.T., Huo, Y.Y. et al. Cymbopogom Citratus Essential Oils: A Promising Source of Antifungals Against Panax Notoginseng-Associated Pathogenic Fungi. Curr Microbiol 80, 17 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-03119-6

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