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Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

DOI

10.55730/1300-011X.3169

Abstract

Corn silk (Stigma maydis), the silky hairs on top of maize, is commonly discarded as waste. Despite its traditional medicinal use in countries like China, the United States, France, and Turkey, its phytochemical and pharmacological attributes have received limited study. In this study, the agar well diffusion method was used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of free and bound crude extracts from cornsilk obtained using different solvents. Compared to the free crude extract, the bound crude extract exhibited greater efficacy against the tested microorganisms. Consequently, sequential fractionation was performed on the bound crude extract, and it was found that the ethyl acetate extract showed the greatest activity against the tested microorganisms. Stigmasterol (STG) (compound 1) and stigmasteryl-3β-arachidate (compound 2) were isolated from the ethyl acetate active fraction, followed by their identification via mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy techniques. STG showed favorable antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, C. albicans M. smegmatis and E. coli. In vivo the antimicrobial activity of STG was evaluated in artificially contaminated cherry tomatoes infected with Fusarium verticillioides.STG showed a significant inhibitory activity compared to the control on cherry tomatoes when placed prior to inoculation at a concentration of 1.5 mg/ml STG and 2.5 mg /ml STG. This research paves the way for practical applications of STG isolated from corn silk in the food industry, where the demand for safe and natural antimicrobial agents is increasing.

Keywords

Corn silk, bound phenolic, stigmasterol, antimicrobial activity, cherry tomatoes, Fusarium verticillioides

First Page

139

Last Page

153

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