Efficacy of Different Vinegars as Antifungal Agents Against Aspergillusniger

Humaira Niamat*, Asmara Imtiaz and Muhammad Amjad Khan

  • Humaira Niamat 1. Department of Biology, Lahore Garrison University, Lahore, Pakistan
  • Asmara Imtiaz 1. Department of Biology, Lahore Garrison University, Lahore, Pakistan
  • M. Amjad Khan 1. Department of Biology, Lahore Garrison University, Lahore, Pakistan
Keywords: Aspergillus niger, preservatives, synthetic vinegars, lemon

Abstract

Natural sources have caught the scientist’s eye for the development of new active substances because of the side effects of chemically synthetic preservatives and their ultimate hazardous effects on human health. In the present study, three types of vinegars; white distilled vinegar, grape vinegar and apple cider have been used to test the antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger. For the isolation of the fungal strain, lemon was used. Microscopy was performed for identification of fungus followed by application of vinegars through agar well diffusion assay technique. All kinds of vinegar showed a significant size of zone of the inhibition against fungi. Among all these vinegars, apple cider showed the best effect against A. niger forming zone of inhibition of 0.7±0.05 mm. While, grape vinegar and white distilled vinegar forms a zone of inhibition of 0.3±0.05 mm and 0.45±0.05 mm respectively. The results showed that vinegars can be used as an alternative to synthetic antifungal agents in order to overcome the drawbacks because they have active components i.e. phenolics and flavonoids etc. which have antifungal and anti-oxidant properties.

Author Biography

Humaira Niamat, 1. Department of Biology, Lahore Garrison University, Lahore, Pakistan

Department of Biology, Lahore Garrison University, Lahore, Pakistan.

Published
2020-04-22