Effect of Echinacea pupurea essential oil on growth and Aspergillus flavous mycotoxin production

Foodborne diseases contaminated with mycotoxins are a concern for human health. The use of bioactive compounds to improve food safety and preservation has been considered to reduce the economic losses and risks of these factors. The aim of this study was to use purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) essential oil as a bio preservative to control the growth of Aspergillus flavus and to prevent the production of aflatoxin B1. For this purpose, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values were calculated using a disk diffusion method and then the effect of different concentrations of the essential oil on aflatoxin B1 production was evaluated. The amount of aflatoxin B1 production in the YES (yeast extract sucrose) culture media was measured by HPLC. The results of this study showed that MIC and MFC were 10000 ppm and 15000 ppm, respectively. The results of the growth inhibition zone showed that increasing concentration of the essential oil significantly (p<0.05) increased the diameter of the inhibition zone. It was also founded that aflatoxin B1 production was significantly (p<0.05) dependent on purple coneflower concentration so that by increasing of the essential oil concentration the aflatoxin production significantly (p<0.05) decreased. Accordingly, the aflatoxin B1 production by A. flavus was prevented using concentration of 15000 ppm of purple coneflower essential oil. Overall, it can be concluded that purple coneflower essential oil can control the production of aflatoxin by A. flavus to an acceptable level