African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (6), pp. 718-719, 19 March 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Short Communication

Efficacy of Euphorbia milli and Euphorbia pulcherrima on aflatoxin producing fungi (Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus)

Murugan, S.¹*, Anand, R.¹, Uma Devi, P.², Vidhya, N.¹ and Rajesh, K. A.¹

¹Postgraduate and Research Department of Microbiology

²Postgraduate and Research Department of Biochemistry, Arts and Science College, Coimbatore-35, Tamilnadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: micro_murugs@inbox.com.  Tel: 0422-2629367. Fax: 0422-2629369. Mobile: 098420 53851.

Accepted 5 February, 2007

Efficacy of seven different concentrations (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 mg/ml) of dry flower powder of Euphorbia milli and Euphorbia pulcherrima was tested on the growth of aflatoxin producing toxigenic strains of fungi’ Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus in Sabouraud Dextrose Agar medium (SDA). Total (100%) inhibition of growth of both A. flavus and A. parasiticus was observed at 30 mg/ml concentration of E. milli dry flower powder. Total inhibition (100%) of growth of A. flavus was observed at 30 mg/ml concentration of E. pulcherrima and for A. parasiticus, it is 35 mg/ml. Bioassay with groundnut seeds soaked with different concentration (5 – 35 mg/ml) of flower extract proved that both fungi were incapable of infecting the seeds in the presence of 30 and 35 mg/ml of both E. milli and E. pulcherrima.

Key words: Aflatoxin, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, Euphorbia milli, E. pulcherrima.