Antifungal, aflatoxin inhibition and antioxidant activity of Callistemon lanceolatus (Sm.) Sweet essential oil and its major component 1,8-cineole against fungal isolates from chickpea seeds Ravindra Shukla, Priyanka Singh, Bhanu Prakash, N.K. Dubey * Laboratory of Herbal Pesticides, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India article info Article history: Received 26 May 2011 Received in revised form 28 September 2011 Accepted 4 October 2011 Keywords: Aflatoxin B 1 Antifungal Antioxidant Callistemon lanceolatus Essential oil abstract The present investigation reports the extent of molds and aflatoxin contamination to Avarodhi, Kabuli, Pusa 256, Radha and Samrat varieties of chickpea seeds. The study also examines the chemical composition of Callistemon lanceolatus (Sm.) Sweet essential oil and its antifungal, antiaflatoxin and antioxidant activity. During standardization of chemical profile, a total of 8 compounds constituting 0.862 mg/mL of oil composition were analyzed by GCeMS analysis where 1,8-cineole was recorded as a major component (0.56 mg/mL). The antifungal activity of EO and 1,8-cineole was evaluated by contact assay on Czapek’s dox agar. The EO (0.227e0.908 mg/mL) and 1,8-cineole (0.918 mg/mL) showed remarkable antifungal effect against all the fungal isolates of chickpea. Their minimal inhibitory (MIC) and fungicidal (MFC) concentrations for Aspergillus flavus were lower than those of the prevalent systemic fungicide Nystatin. Aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) production by NKD-208 isolates of A. flavus was strongly inhibited even at the lower fungistatic concentration of EO and 1,8-cineole.There was no adverse effect of EO treatment on chickpea seed germination suggesting its non-phytotoxic nature. Based on the findings of present investigation, C. lanceolatus essential oil may be recommended as botanical preservative for the enhancement of shelf life of food items in- view of the adverse effect of synthetic preservatives and its strong antifungal, aflatoxin inhibition and antioxidant activity. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Molds are ubiquitous microorganisms with a great capacity to colonize different kinds of substrates and to proliferate under extreme environmental conditions (Nguefack et al., 2009). They spoil various types of foods viz. cereals, legumes, spices, vegetables, fruits etc. and also produce mycotoxins that can be mutagenic, teratogenic, carcinogenic causing feed refusal and emesis in humans or animals (Frisvad, Skouboe, & Samson, 2005; Prakash et al., 2010; Prakash et al., 2011; Reddy, Raghavender, Salleh, Reddy, & Reddy, 2011). There are reports that hepatic carcinoma and other serious diseases may be induced by consuming food or using raw materials for food processing contaminated with aflatoxins. Nearly 5 billion people are exposed to aflatoxins in different developing countries and aflatoxicosis is ranked 6th among the 10 most severe health risks identified by WHO (Prakash et al., 2010). Moreover, aflatoxins are proved resistant to heat and have an ability to accumulate in the organism (Galvano, Ritieni, Piva, & Pietri, 2005). Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the most nutritive among the food legumes and extensively used as protein adjunct to starchy diet (Sastri, 1950). Chickpea after dehulling is valued for its nutritive seeds with high protein content (12.3e31.5%) and 0.3% phosphorus. South-east Asia contributes about 80% to the global chickpea production, and India is the principal chickpea producing country in the region with 83% share (ICRISAT, 2011). Fungal contamination of chickpea seeds is the major problem in Indian sub-continent (Ahmad & Singh,1991; Dawar, Syed, & Ghaffar, 2007). Although, different synthetic antimicrobials have been successfully commercialized in recent years, they encounter major problems not only due to their adverse side effects on consumers but also for the development of resistance by microorganisms (Tolouee et al., 2010). Hence, there must be optimization of alter- native methods for pest and disease control that produce minimal damage to the environment and human health. With an expanding list of food-borne pathogens, there is an urgent need to explore the novel strategy to prevent food contamination. Essential oils as well as compounds derived from aromatic plants possess a wide range of activities of which the antimi- crobial activity is most studied (Burt, 2004). Their applications * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9415295765; fax: þ91 5422368174. E-mail address: nkdubey2@rediffmail.com (N.K. Dubey). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont 0956-7135/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2011.10.010 Food Control 25 (2012) 27e33