Antifungal activity and phytochemical analysis of selected fruit peels

Abstract

Antifungal activity and phytochemical analysis of selected fruit peels were investigated in this work. The selected peels, obtained from orange, pineapple cashew and banana fruits were air dried at 28±2 0 C for four weeks and later grounded into powders. Extracts were prepared from each powder using water and ethanol as solvents. The antimicrobial activity of each of the aqueous extracts (100mg/ml) against Aspergillus niger and Alternaria alternata (test isolates) was assayed using agar well diffusion method. Agar well without any extract served as control. Phytochemical screening of each extract was equally carried out. Results obtained on day three of incubation showed that Aspergillus niger had its respective inhibition zones with orange, cashew, pineapple and banana peel extracts as 0.33±0.33, 0.40±0.30, 0.60±0.20 and 0.87±0.33cm while inhibition zones of Alternaria alternata with the peels in the same order were 0.50±0.50, 0.60±0.35, 0.87±0.43 and 1.37±0.67cm. In each case, inhibition zone with banana peel was signifi cantly different (P≥0.05) from others. However, the inhibition zone of the control could not be determined. Hence, the order of antifungal activity of the peel extracts against Aspergillus niger and Alternaria alternata was banana> pineapple> cashew> orange. The antifungal activity of these peel extracts could be due to different classes of compounds such as alkaloid, fl avonoid, tannin, cardiac glycoside, saponin and phlobatannin found in them.