The Effect of an Ethyl Acetate Extract of Frozen Cranberries Mixed with Amphotericin B as a Growth Inhibitor of Mucor racemosus

Abstract

Fungal diseases cause billions of dollars in agricultural damage and around one and a half million human deaths each year. To combat this epidemic, scientists focus on researching ways to improve the effects of current antifungal treatments. Cranberries contain a compound, proanthocyanidin, that is known to kill and reduce the spread of pathogenic fungi infections in human epidermal tissue. However, the use of a general cranberry extract to assist an antifungal agent on fungal fruit infections, such as Mucor rot, has not been heavily studied. By performing three experiments, we studied whether an ethyl acetate extract of frozen cranberries can inhibit the growth of and/or kill M. racemosus, as well as whether the extract would degrade at room temperature. A mixture of equal parts extract and amphotericin B were shown to be significantly more effective at inhibiting the growth of the fungi, while no effect was observed regarding the mixture’s lethality. The extract was shown to degrade significantly when left at room temperature in a sealed container. The data shows that an ethyl acetate extract of frozen cranberries can be used to increase the efficacy of antifungal agents, but storage methods need to be studied to lengthen the half-life.