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Inhibitory Effect of Cinnamaldehyde, Citral, and Eugenol on Aflatoxin Biosynthetic Gene Expression and Aflatoxin B 1 Biosynthesis in Aspergillus flavus
Author(s) -
Liang Dandan,
Xing Fuguo,
Selvaraj Jonathan Nimal,
Liu Xiao,
Wang Limin,
Hua Huijuan,
Zhou Lu,
Zhao Yueju,
Wang Yan,
Liu Yang
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/1750-3841.13144
Subject(s) - citral , aflatoxin , eugenol , aspergillus flavus , cinnamaldehyde , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , food science , biology , biochemistry , essential oil , organic chemistry , catalysis
In order to reveal the inhibitory effects of cinnamaldehyde, citral, and eugenol on aflatoxin biosynthesis, the expression levels of 5 key aflatoxin biosynthetic genes were evaluated by real‐time PCR. Aspergillus flavus growth and AFB 1 production were completely inhibited by 0.80 mmol/L of cinnamaldehyde and 2.80 mmol/L of citral. However, at lower concentration, cinnamaldehyde (0.40 mmol/L), eugenol (0.80 mmol/L), and citral (0.56 mmol/L) significantly reduced AFB 1 production with inhibition rate of 68.9%, 95.4%, and 41.8%, respectively, while no effect on fungal growth. Real‐time PCR showed that the expressions of aflR , aflT , aflD , aflM , and aflP were down‐regulated by cinnamaldehyde (0.40 mmol/L), eugenol (0.80 mmol/L), and citral (0.56 mmol/L). In the presence of cinnamaldehyde, AflM was highly down‐regulated (average of 5963 folds), followed by aflP , aflR , aflD , and aflT with the average folds of 55, 18, 6.5, and 5.8, respectively. With 0.80 mmol/L of eugenol, aflP was highly down‐regulated (average of 2061‐folds), followed by aflM , aflR , aflD , and aflT with average of 138‐, 15‐, 5.2‐, and 4.8‐folds reduction, respectively. With 0.56 mmol/L of citral, a flT was completely inhibited, followed by aflM , aflP , aflR , and aflD with average of 257‐, 29‐, 3.5‐, and 2.5‐folds reduction, respectively. These results suggest that the reduction in AFB 1 production by cinnamaldehyde, eugenol, and citral at low concentration may be due to the down‐regulations of the transcription level of aflatoxin biosynthetic genes. Cinnamaldehyde and eugenol may be employed successfully as a good candidate in controlling of toxigenic fungi and subsequently contamination with aflatoxins in practice.