Fungicidal activity of four essential oils from Piper capense, Piper borbonense and Vetiveria zizanoides growing in Comoros against fungi decay wood

Abstract

For valorization and diversification of medicinal plants used in Comoros, we are interested in three species growth in this archipelago. Four essential oils were extracted from these plants and used in this study. Essential oils were obtained by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and GC–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Sesquiterpene compounds are predominant in Piper borbonense and Vetiveria zizanoides essential oils but for Piper capense essential oil, monoterpenes are predominant. Essential oils were investigated for their fungicidal activities against four fungi decay wood: Gloeophyllum trabeum (Persoon ex Fries) Murril (ATCC 11539), Poria placenta (Fries) Cooke sensu J. Eriksson (ATCC 9891), Coniophora puteana (Schumacher ex Fries) Karsten (ATCC 9351) and Coriolus versicolor (Linnaeus) Quélet (ATCC 12679). These essential oils showed an in important activity against all strains tested. However, the highest activity was observed in Vetiveria and P. borbonense essential oils.

Keywords:

• Piper borbonense
• Vetiveria zizanoides
• Piper capense
• essential oil
• fungi decay wood

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Professor Jean-Noël Labat for botanical identification of these plants and to F. Amarti and R. Fouad for their contribution in this study. This work was supported by the MAP2ERA project (7PCRD).