Antifungal properties of Prunus serotina Ehrh. extracts

Among the many deciduous species of European forest understory some of them have recently received special attention. This species are invasive alien plant species (IAPS). In Polish forest these IAPS species are black cherry ( Prunus serotina Ehrh.), red oak (Querqus rubra L.) and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.). In this study black cherry had been investigated. In Polish climatic conditions, the black cherry grows as a shrub rather than a tree. The first flowers appear at the age of 4, the bush produces large amounts of fruit that help it spread quickly in the undergrowth. There are attempts to remove this species, but none of them succeed. Since it already exists in the forest understory, a way needs to be found to utilize it. Young trees are usually removed from the understory by simply cutting them down, which gives material for the experiment. The study investigated antifungal properties of extracts from twigs of the black cherry. After removing black cherry from the forest, we get quite thin twigs, that can be used in full, leaf and bark can be removed, also leaf, flower and fruit can be collected separately. For antifungal experiment water extracts of whole twigs (together with flower and leaf or unmatured fruit and leaf) were prepared. Fungal strains: Coniophora puteana, Trametes versicolor, Gloeophyllum trabeum were used. The fungal growth rates were measured in 90 mm-diameter plastic dishes with the use of the agar-plate method, described by Wazny and Thorton (1986). Three concentrations of twigs water extracts in the range of 10% to 0.1% were studied. The results of the study showed that examined extracts in the concentration of 10% inhibited the colony growth up to 97% against C. puteana, up to 51% against G. trabeum and up to 37% against T. versicolor. Lower concentrations showed inhibition of the colonies growth from 0 to 13%.