Chemical composition and antifungal activity of Cymbopogon schoenanthus harvested in Béchar region, Algeria

Cymbopogon schoenanthus is a natural plant that often grows in tropical regions such as North and West Africa. In order to valorize this aromatic plant from southern Algeria, we were interested in the chemical characterization of its essential oil by GC(Ir), GC-MS, and 13C NMR, and in the determination of the antifungal activity of its essential oil against toxinogenic strains isolated from spices sold in bulk. The detailed chemical analysis of all the parts of the plant collected from the station of El aguid of Bechar allowed to identify 48 components The composition was dominated by various alkohols bearing thep-menthane skeleton : cis-p-menth-2-en-1-ol (22.3%), trans-p-menth-2-en-1-ol (10.2%), cis-piperitol (10.1%) and trans-piperitol (5.3%). Monoterpenes hydrocarbons were representedby δ-2-carene (16.0%) and limonene (4.7%).β-elemol (4.8%) was the main oxygenated sesquiterpene followed by juniper camphor(2.6%), β-eudesmol (1.9%), selina-6-en-4α-ol(1.9%), intermedeol (1.4%) and α-eudesmol(1.3%). However in the second part of our study the essential oil of C. schoenanthus showed good activity towards Aspergillus fumigatus and AspergIllus flavus with inhibition zone diameters of 29.5mm and 23mm while the activity was lower towards Penicillium sp with a diameter of 11mm. The result of activity towards the toxic strain Penicillium sp has never been reported in the literature. On the other hand, the chemical characterization of the essential oil of the plant is the first one made on the station of el aguid of Bechar.