Composition and Antifungal Properties of Essential Oils from Five Plants Growing in the Mountainous Area of the West Cameroon

AbstractContamination of stored foodstuffs by fungi and their toxins is a leading cause of health hazard worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to search for new alternatives to encounter these drawbacks. The present study was initiated with the objective to analyze the chemical composition and to evaluate the antifungal potential of the essential oils of the leaves of five wild plants named, Caucalis melanantha, Geniosporum rotundifolium, Peperomia pellucida, Peperomia vulcanica and Pycnostachys meyeri growing in the mountainous area of Mbouda (West region of Cameroon). Gas chromatography (GC) and Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was employed to examine the chemical composition of the oils. Major constituents of G. Rotundifolium's oil were germacrene D (26.8 %), β-caryophyllene (23.0 %) and β-gurjunene (10.1 %) while the essential oil of P. meyeri had β-caryophyllene (12.1 %) and nerolidol (10.1 %) as the prominent compounds. α-terpinene (18.3 %) and β-pinene (14.0 %) were the...