Antifungal activity of extracts from the Antarctic plant Colobanthus quitensis Kunth. (Bartl) cultured in vitro against Botrytis cinerea Pers

Abstract

Botrytis cinerea, a responsible for grey rot that mainly affects fruit and represent a problem in fruit-exporting countries. Synthetic antifungals are used for its control. However, it has developed a specific resistance towards them. Therefore, a search for new natural alternatives that are friendly to the environment has increased in the last decade. In this work, the activity of in vitro-cultured C. quitensis extracts was analysed. Extract was characterized using LC-MS/MS and evaluated in vitro, and in vivo using edible coatings in table grapes. The application of extracts inhibited the development of conidia and mycelium of B. cinerea, with EC50 values of 0.071 ± 0.008 g L⁻¹ and 0.074 ± 0.09 g L⁻¹, respectively, inducing oxidative stress in vitro; on the other hand, in vivo assays showed a protection and preservation of anthocyanins and sugars in table grapes. These results suggest that C. quitensis extracts represent a good alternative to control B. cinerea.

Keywords:

• C. quitensis
• B. cinerea
• antifungal
• flavone C-glycosides
• plant extract

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Chilean Committee of Research in Science and Technology (Conicyt) for funding (project Fondecyt 3160274) and the Chilean Antarctic Institute for logistics in the sample collection of C. quitensis in the field. Specially thanks to Drs. Grace Armijo and Patricio Arce-Johnson from Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and María de los Ángeles Miccono from Chilean Institute of Agricultural Sciences (La Platina) for providing the B. cinerea samples. The authors thank CEDENNA and Project Fortalecimiento Usach USA1799_ZG203516.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Author’s contributions

RAC performed the experimental design and development, analysed the results, and wrote the paper. NPH, MP, RMG and CS contributed to experimental development. LM contributed to metabolite identification and to the experimental design. GEZ is the PI of our laboratory, supervises all experiments and contributes to the experimental design and result analysis.