Antifungal activity of compounds extracted from Cortex Pseudolaricis against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

Cortex Pseudolaricis is the root bark of Pseudolarix amabilis Rehder, found only in China, and has been widely used in folk antifungal remedies in traditional Chinese medicine. In order to find the natural antifungal agents against mango anthracnose, eight compounds, namely pseudolaric acid A (1), ethyl pseudolaric acid B (2), pseudolaric acid B (3), pseudolaric acid B-O-β-d-glucoside (4), piperonylic acid (5), propionic acid (6), 3-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzoic acid (7), and 4-(3-formyl-5-methoxyphenyl) butanoic acid (8) were isolated from the ethanol extracts of Cortex Pseudolaricis by bioassay-guided fractionation and evaluated for in vitro antifungal activity against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz. Results demonstrated that all of the eight compounds inhibited the mycelial growth of C. gloeosporioides at 5 μg/mL. Among them, pseudolaric acid B and pseudolaric acid A showed the strongest inhibition with the EC50 values of 1.07 and 1.62 μg/mL, respectively. Accordingly, both Pseudolaric acid B and Pseudolaric acid A highly inhibited spore germination and germ tube elongation of C. gloeosporioides. Dipping 100 μg/mL pseudolaric acid B treatment exhibited more effective suppression on postharvest anthracnose in mango fruit when compared to the same concentration of carbendazim. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that pseudolaric acid B caused alterations in the hyphal morphology of C. gloeosporioides, including distortion, swelling, and collapse. Pseudolaric acid B caused the mycelial apexes to show an abnormal growth in dimensions with multiple ramifications in subapical expanded areas with irregular shape. These findings warrant further investigation into optimization of pseudolaric acid B to explore a potential antifungal agent for crop protection.