Assessment of antifungal activity of Rosemary oil extract and its effect on AFL1 gene expression in Aspergillus flavus by Real-Time PCR

Subject Areas : Mycology

Mojtaba Mohammadi ¹ , Seyyed Jamal Hashemi ² , Sasan Rezaei ³ , Mansour Bayat ⁴

1 - Ph.D. student, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 - Professor, Department of Medical Mycology, Faculty of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
3 - Professor, Department of Medical Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
4 - Professor, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2017-07-15 Accepted : 2017-08-01 Published : 2018-05-22

Keywords: Candida albicans, Aspergillus flavus, Medical plants, Trichophyton verrucosum, Epidermophyton floccosum,

Abstract :

Background & Objectives: Rosemary is a very important medicinal herb which its effect on toxin-causing and pathogenic fungi is not studied very well. This study was aimed to investigate the antifungal effect of the extract of Rosemary extract on various fungal groups including Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans, Epidermophyton floccussom, Trichophyton verrucosum and its effect on AFL1 gene expression in A. flavus using real-time PCR method. Achieving an effective herbal medicine can be significant due to the limited amount of antifungal drugs and the prevalence of antifungal drug resistance.   Materials & Methods: First of all A. flavus and C. albicans were cultured on sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) media and T. verrucosum and E. floccosum were cultured on Mycocell agar media with 0.5 McFarland turbidity standard. Antifungal property of the rosemary extract was investigated using disk diffusion test. Then, the effective Rosemary extract concentration was evaluated using 10 standard tubes and sabouraud dextrose broth. Finally, the effect of Rosemary extract on AFL1 gene expression was examined.   Results: Our results indicated that Rosemary extract has an inhibitory effect on various types of fungi so that the mean diameter of the inhibition zone was measured as about 16 to 18 mm. The effective MCI for C. albicans was observed as approximately 4 to 6 mg / L, for A. flavus as 3 to 5 mg /L and for E. floccosum and T. verrucosum as 4 to 6 mg /L. RT-PCR analysis confirmed the inhibitory effect of Rosemary extracts on aflatoxin- producing  AFL1 gene expression at the molecular level, very well.   Conclusion: The extract of Rosemary can have a considerable inhibitory effect on fungal growth,  AFL1 gene expression and aflatoxin production in A. flavus.  

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