Enhancement of in vitro fungicidal activity of fuberidazole to Botrytis cinerea by cucurbiturils

Na'Il Saleh, Suad M. Ajeb, Arjun Sham, Synan F. Abuqamar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The host-guest interaction of fuberidazole (FBZ) fungicide with cucurbituril (CB) macromolecules was characterized in pure water using UV-vis spectrophotometric and NMR techniques. The in vitro applications (at pH 5.5 in pure water) of host-guest complexes were conducted against Botrytis cinerea. While addition of CB5 to FBZ had no significant effect in vitro, mixing CB7 or CB8 with FBZ in a 1:2 ratio improved fungal growth inhibition at least threefold, when compared to the corresponding concentration of the unbound fungicide molecules. Empty CB hosts were completely inactive. Furthermore, the inhibitory activity to B. cinerea was relatively maintained down to a concentration of 5:10 μM of the CB7/8@FBZ complexes, relative to any of controls. Complexation by CB7/8 further improved the photostability of the fungicides with photostabilization factors of 7 and 3, respectively. CB7/8 bound the protonated forms of these guests very strongly but their neutral forms were significantly weaker, which reflects a complexation-induced increase of their pK a values by 3.8 units with CB7 and 1.4 units with CB8. The present investigation constitutes an innovative, nonclassical, approach to enhance fungicides efficacy utilizing macromolecules with a potential application in crop protection technology.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)301-309
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry
Volume79
Issue number3-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2014

Keywords

  • Botrytis cinerea
  • Cucurbiturils
  • Fuberidazole

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Food Science
  • Chemistry(all)
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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