This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Fungal contamination in stored grain across sub-Saharan Africa causes major post-harvest losses and severe public health risks, costing billions of dollars annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). High humidity, warm temperatures and inadequate storage facilities can drive mold proliferation and toxin production in staple crops such as corn and sorghum.
Farmers in West Africa have long used a mixture of traditional plants to reduce fungi in grain storage, but the true impact of this approach was unknown, according to an international team led by Penn State food scientists. Now, the team has found that a formulation made from an evergreen tree called neem, lemongrass, garlic and hot chili plants effectively inhibits the growth of two Fusarium fungal species in corn. They recently published their findings in Access Microbiology.
"We wanted to see if those plants actually worked and if a combination would be more effective," said team leader and study senior author Josephine Wee, associate professor of food science in the College of Agricultural Sciences. "In sub-Saharan Africa, there are many, many smallholder farmers who grow small lots of grains, and they store their harvest. Then it gets collected and stored again before it reaches the facility that actually processes it.
The warm, humid climate induces the growth of mold, which ruins the harvest, leading to decreased income for the farmers and decreased food supply for the community. Increases in global temperatures might make this problem worse." Study co-first author Elisee Kouassi Kporou, a researcher with Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, Côte d'Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, was a Fulbright scholar in Wee's lab in the Penn State Department of Food Science when the research was conducted. He led the team that developed BioCC+ in Côte d'Ivoire—made with edible plants used by farmers and their ancestors to protect their grain—and then evaluated its antifungal potential at Penn State.
The team evaluated BioCC+'s ability to protect against two fungal species that commonly infect corn and produce mold toxins that sicken people and livestock: Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium verticillioides. The researchers prepared extracts from BioCC+ and tested whether the extracts stopped fungal growth. Then they separated the extract into smaller chemical fractions and tested each fraction again, determining which had more antifungal activity.
The researchers compared extracts made with water, methanol and dichloromethane—a clear, volatile liquid widely used in industrial and laboratory settings because it can dissolve a vast array of organic compounds. They found that the dichloromethane extract was the most effective antifungal preparation. The team found that the BioCC+ extracts inhibited fungal growth, and the minimum concentrations required were 12.5 milligrams of BioCC+ extract per milliliter of dichloromethane against Fusarium graminearum and 25 milligrams of BioCC+ extract per milliliter of dichloromethane against Fusarium verticillioides.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
