Antimycotoxigenic Activity of Beetroot Extracts against Alternaria alternata Mycotoxins on Potato Crop

Alternaria species, mainly air-borne fungi, affect potato plants, causing black spots symptoms. Morphological identification, pathogenicity assessment, and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) molecular identification confirmed that all isolates were Alternaria alternata. The annotated sequences were deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MN592771-MN592777. HPLC analysis revealed that the fungal isolates KH3 (133,200 ng/g) and NO3 (212,000 ng/g) produced higher levels of tenuazonic acid (TeA) and alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), respectively. Beet ethanol extract (BEE) and beet methanol extract (BME) at different concentrations were used as antimycotoxins. BME decreased the production of mycotoxins by 66.99-99.79%. The highest TeA reduction rate (99.39%) was reported in the KH3 isolate with 150 mu g/mL BME treatment. In comparison, the most effective AME reduction rate (99.79%) was shown in the NO3 isolate with 150 mu g/mL BME treatment. In the same way, BEE application resulted in 95.60-99.91% mycotoxin reduction. The highest TeA reduction rate (99.91%) was reported in the KH3 isolate with 150 mu g/mL BEE treatment, while the greatest AME reduction rate (99.68%) was shown in the Alam1 isolate with 75 mu g/mL BEE treatment. GC-MS analysis showed that the main constituent in BME was the antioxidant compound 1-dodecanamine, n,n-dimethyl with a peak area of 43.75%. In contrast, oxirane, methyl- (23.22%); hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester (10.72%); and n-hexadecanoic acid (7.32%) were the main components in BEE found by GC-MS. They are probably antimicrobial molecules and have an effect on the mycotoxin in general. To our knowledge, this is the first study describing the antimycotoxigenic activity of beet extracts against A. alternata mycotoxins-contaminated potato crops in Egypt, aimed to manage and save the environment.

Automated summary

This study confirmed the impact of Alternaria alternata fungi on potato plants and found that beet extracts have significant effects in inhibiting the production of fungal toxins, especially showing pronounced reduction in TeA and AME.