Biological Activity of Four Antifungal Compounds in Immature Avocado

Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides in ripe avocados originates as latent infections in the immature fruits. Concentrated ether extract of the peel of apparently healthy, immature avocados when bioassayed on thin layer chromatographic plates with conidia of either Cladosporium cladosporioides or C. gloeosporioides produced four inhibition areas at Rf 0.30, 0.32, 0.70 and 0.75 (these were denoted as AvIV, AvIII, AvII and AvI respectively). A hot chloroform extract was partitioned on a silica gel column and the four antifungal compounds were separated. Spectroscopic data revealed that one of these compounds, AvII, was similar to cis-l-acetoxy-2-hydroxy-4-oxo-heneicosa-12,15-diene and another (AvIV) was a long chain saturated compound comprising hydroxyl group(s) having molecular weight of 268. Toxicity of AvII to C. gloeosporioides was 2 times that of AvIV and 6.5 and 7.5 times that of AvIII and AvI respectively. The amounts of these four antifungal compounds increased gradually during fruit development and reached their maxima at harvest. The concentration of AvI, AvII, AvIII and AvIV was 1300, 920, 1050 and 780 μg/g fresh peel respectively in the fruit at harvesting maturity. The amount of AvII and AvIV decreased to 53 and 64 μg/g fresh peel respectively in the fruit at the ripe stage at which neither AvI nor AvIII was detected. This took place in coincidence with the onset of progressive lesion development by the fungus.