ESTIMATION OF THE ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF THE TWO DIFFERENT CARBON DOTS AGAINST Aspergillus flavus

Abstract

Environmental occurrence of the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) has hazardous effects on the health status of plants, humans, and animals. It is important to explore novel antifungal agents to control the growth of this fungus. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the antifungal contact activity of two different types of carbon dots (CDS) nanomaterials; the one was coated with vitamin B12 (CDS@VB12) and the other was obtained from folic acid (FA@CDs). We used fluorescence spectroscopy to obtain their fluorescence fingerprinting profile. The CDs were pipetted on the PDA medium with sterilised filter paper placed in the center of the Petri dish. Then, pure A. flavus cultures were subcultured on PDA and incubated at 25°C for 7 days, and the diameters of mycelium growth were daily evaluated. The percentage of inhibition by CDS@VB12 ranged from 38.09% to 60.9% and from 46.03% to 71.39% for the amounts of 30 μl and 50 μl, respectively. On the other hand, FA@CDs did not show any inhibitory effect on the first day, and after that more progressive growth of A. flavus was noticed. The obtained results showed that CDS@VB12 could be considered as a potential new antifungal material against toxic and pathogenic A. flavus.