Evaluation of Natural Antifungal Compounds from Artemisia afra and its Effectiveness on Prevention of Aflatoxins

Artemisia afra is a medicinal plant with antimicrobial activities, known to treat tuberculosis, measles, cough, and influenza. In consequence, its applications have increasingly become pivotal control various microbes which cause different diseases. This study therefore, evaluated the chemical composition antifungal activity of A. essential oil. The extraction oil was done using steam distillation. analysed by GC-MS. analysis revealed 19 compounds from afra. main were borneol (71.529%), terpinen-4-ol (8.582%), ?-thujone (3.283%), ?-terpineol (2.590%), ?-terpineol (1.791%), chrysanthenone (1.507%), myrtenal (1.393%), eucalyptol (1,8-cineole) (1.263%), cis-sabinene hydrate (1.172%) trans-carane, 4,5-epoxy (1.088%). growth aflatoxin production inhibitions against flavus determined via antiaflatoxigenic bioassays at concentration range 10–50 µL/mL poisoned-food method. quantification aflatoxins carried out high-performance liquid chromatography. effective inhibition 99.97–99.99% controlled 99.25–99.63%. results indicated that can an alternative natural fungicide for production.
 Keywords: afra; oil; flavus; aflatoxins; GC-MS