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Abstract
Contamination of stored foodstuffs by fungi and their toxins is a leading cause of health hazard worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for new alternatives to encounter these drawbacks. The present study was initiated with the objective to analyze the chemical composition and to evaluate the antifungal potential of the essential oils of the leaves of five wild plants named, Caucalis melanantha, Geniosporum rotundifolium, Peperomia pellucida, Peperomia vulcanica and Pycnostachys meyeri growing in the mountainous area of Mbouda (West region of Cameroon). Gas chromatography (GC) and Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was employed to examine the chemical composition of the oils. Major constituents of G. Rotundifolium's oil were germacrene D (26.8 %), β-caryophyllene (23.0 %) and β-gurjunene (10.1 %) while the essential oil of P. meyeri had β-caryophyllene (12.1 %) and nerolidol (10.1 %) as the prominent compounds. α-terpinene (18.3 %) and β-pinene (14.0 %) were the major products of P. vulcanica oil, although sesquiterpenes represented more than 50 % of the oil. The most abundant component in the monoterpenic fraction of C. melanantha was α-pinene (35.3 %) accompanied by sabinene (16.8 %) and terpinen-4-ol (12.8 %). For P. pellucida's oil, dillapiole (37.8 %) and myristicine (11.3 %) were the main compounds. The five essential oils exhibited significant antifungal activities against Fusarium moniliforme and Rhizopus stolonifer with percentages of inhibition ranging between 46.2 and 97.3 %. The essential oils of G. rotundifolium and P. pellucida were the most active against the two fungi. The results obtained showed that these essential oils could be used as botanical fungicides for controlling phytopathogenic fungi.