Antifungal Activity of a Protean Extract from Amaranthus hypochondriacus Seeds

Plants have developed a variety of protection mechanisms which include the synthesis of both, low molecular weight secondary metabolites and macromolecules as proteins and peptides with antimicrobial activity. There are previous reports of antifungal peptides found on the seeds of other Amaranthus species, so it is very probable that these kind of compounds are present in the A. hypochondriacus seeds. This was confirmed by the antifungal activity of a protean extract from A. hypochondricus against such pathogenic fungi as Alternaria alternata, Fusarium solani, Candida albicans, Fusarium oxysporum, Trichoderma sp. and Aspergillus ochraceus. The fungal growth inhibition was evaluated using the "poisoned" agar and the microspectrophotometry tests.