A comparative study of the antifungal efficacy and phytochemical composition of date palm leaflet extracts

Abstract

This study rigorously evaluated the inhibitory effects of chloroform (PDCL) and methanol (PDML) extracts from date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) leaflets, in comparison to fosetyl-aluminum, against molecularly identified fungal strains Fusarium oxysporum (OR116511), Botrytis cinerea (OR116493), and Rhizoctonia solani (OR116530) isolated from date palm tree roots and fruits. We found that coumaric acid (1663.91 µg g−1) is one of the top four high-performance liquid chromatography-major phenols in the PDML extract, while the PDCL extract includes rosmarinic acid (291.08 µg g−1). The major flavonoids in the PDML extract are naringenin and kaempferol, whereas PDCL extract includes naringenin and quercetin. In the PDML extract, methyl 9-cis-11-trans-octadecadienoate (9.96%) is one of the top five gas chromatography–mass spectrometry major compounds; likewise, cis-13-octadecenoic acid (26.16%) is in the PDCL extract. The highest growth inhibition percentages of PDCL and PDML extracts were initiated against F. oxysporum (60.53 and 50.00%) at 150 µg mL−1, respectively, whereas inhibition against B. cinerea was realized at the highest concentration with 50.82%. Fosetyl-Al potently inhibited the growth of fungal isolates to varying degrees. Therefore, we could successfully employ PDCL extract to control the growth of F. oxysporum and B. cinerea and also use both extracts against R. solani.

Keywords

• date palm
• rhizoctonia solani
• necrotrophic fungi
• soilborne
• root rot