Antifungal Activity of Datura stramonium L. Extractives against Xylophagous Fungi

Some plants have great resistance against herbivores, invertebrates, insects, bacteria, and fungi. This resistance is mostly present in plants containing alkaloids, which are the substances responsible for giving them defensive properties. The genus Datura contains tropane alkaloids and all plants from this genus have defensive properties. In this work, we report the toxic effect against fungi of Datura stramonium extracts, obtained by the Petri dish method. The extraction solvents were water, ethanol, 2-propanol, n-butanol, propanone, butanone, 3-methyl-2-pentanone, dichloromethane, xylene, and toluene. The test fungi were Trametes versicolor (L. ex. Fr) Pilat and Rhodonia placenta (Fr.) Niemela, K.H.Larss. & Schigel. It was found that water, butanone, and toluene extracts promoted mycelial growth, xylene extracts neither inhibited nor promoted mycelial growth, while the other extracts slightly inhibited the growth of these fungi.