Antifungal Activity of Tamarix aphylla (L.) Karst. Stem-Bark Extract Against Some Pathogenic Fungi

The largest identified, Tamarix aphylla (L.) Karst. belonging to family Tamaricaceae is traditionally an important plant used to cure various ailments. Crude ethanolic extracts at concentrations of 2000 ppm, 1000 ppm and 500 ppm were tested against six pathogenic fungi, i.e. Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium notatum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae using five different solvents, e.g. acetone, chloroform, distilled water (DW), ethanol and methanol. Percent of inhibition in fungal growth was recorded. The standard antifungal synthetic drug, Terbinafine, was used in different concentrations mixed with distilled water against different test fungi. Terbinafine completely inhibited the growth of A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger, F. oxysporum, P. notatum and S. cerevisiae with the concentrations of 65±0.58, 72±1.00, 70±1.15, 59±1.00, 60±0.58 and 80±0.58 (µg/ml of PDA medium), respectively. Chloroform was considered to be the most effective solvent preventing 97.68±0.58% growth of F. oxysporum, 9.37±0.33% in A. niger, 92.68±3.33% in S. cerevisiae, 91.46±2.08% in A. fumigatus, 88.48±0.88% in A. flavus and 87.95±1.15% in P. notatum. The obtained results were compared with negative control and most of the results were found to be highly significant (p=0.000). Overall, our results suggest that T. aphylla stem-bark extract illustrated maximum percent inhibition when extracted with chloroform followed by ethanol, acetone, methanol and distilled water.