Antioxidant and antifungal activities of essential oils from Algerian spontaneous plants against five strains of Fusarium spp.

The present study evaluates the antioxidant and antifungal effects of essential oils (EOs) from Thymus vulgaris, Thymus algeriensis, Mentha piperita, Mentha pulegium, Artemisia herba-alba and Artemisia campestris, on five strains of Fusarium. The chemical composition of EOs of T. vulgaris, T. algeriensis, A. herba-alba, M. piperita and M. pulegium is characterized by a dominance of the family of oxygenated monoterpenes with 73.85%, 59.41%, 70.01%, 60.01% and 87.2%, respectively. On the other hand, the EO of A. campestris showed a diverse composition by similar percentages between all families. The two strains BD17 and INRA 349 were found to be resistant to low concentrations of EOs from T. algeriensis, A. campestris and A. herba-alba, sensitive to EOs of M. pulegium and M. piperita and very sensitive to T. vulgaris EO (0.25 μl/ml). A high antioxidant effect was recorded by T. vulgaris EO in BCB assay with an effective concentration (0.5 mg/ml) 3 to 60 times higher compared to the other EOs tested. This antioxidant capacity of T. vulgaris EO was also recorded with DPPH assay at an EC50=1.41 mg/ml.