Chemical composition, antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic activities of Ocimum sanctum L. essential oil and its safety assessment as plant based antimicrobial.

The study deals with the efficacy of Ocimum sanctum essential oil (EO) and its major component, eugenol against the fungi causing biodeterioration of food stuffs during storage. O. sanctum EO and eugenol were found efficacious in checking growth of Aspergillus flavus NKDHV8; and, their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were recorded as 0.3 and 0.2 microl ml(-1), respectively. The O. sanctum EO and eugenol also inhibited the aflatoxin B1 production completely at 0.2 and 0.1 microl ml(-1), respectively. Both of these were found superior over some prevalent synthetic antifungals and exhibited broad fungitoxic spectrum against 12 commonly occurring fungi. The LD50 value of O. sanctum EO on mice was found to be 4571.43 microl kg(-1) suggesting its non-mammalian toxic nature. The findings of present study reveals the possible exploitation of O. sanctum EO and eugenol as plant based safe preservatives against fungal spoilage of food stuffs during storage.