Antifungal activity screening of fractions from Annona cherimola Mill. leaf extract against Fusarium oxysporum.

The antifungal effect of ethanolic extract fractions of Annona cherimola leaves against the mycelial growth of Fusarium oxysporum was studied. The ethanolic crude extract was solvent partitioned and the ethyl acetate phase was fractionated by column or preparative thin-layer chromatography. All fractions were developed on TLC and analyzed for acetogenins (ACG) with Kedde reagent. The antifungal effect assays were carried out in vitro by the diffusion method on PDA plates. The ethanolic extract of A. cherimola leaves was highly active against F. oxysporum growth; subfractions obtained from the antifungal screening had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on the F. oxysporum growth parameters. The screening showed that as the purification steps progressed, the inhibition of mycelial growth increased. Six bioactive ACG (Annomolon-B, 34-epi annomolon B, almunequin, cherimoline 1, cherimoline 2, and isocherimoline 1) were identified by LC-QTOF-MS/MS. These findings suggested that bioactive ACG from A. cherimola leaves could be an alternative resource of a promising botanical fungicide to control plant diseases caused by F. oxysporum.