Antifungal Activity and Mechanistic Insights of Clove Essential Oil Against Fusarium oxysporum-Induced Root Rot Disease via Molecular Docking of Its Major Components
Hualin Hu1,2,*, Caiwei Wang1,2, Jian Fan1,2, Chengmei Wang3, Chunguang Ren4
1 Natural Products Research Center of Guizhou Province, Guiyang, China
2 State Key Laboratory of Discovery and Utilization of Functional Components in Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, China
3 Forestry and Agricultural Service Center of Xinba Town, Guiding County, Qiannan, China
4 Guizhou Institute of Mountain Resources, Guiyang, China
* Corresponding Author: Hualin Hu. Email: 
Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.084714
Received 28 April 2026; Accepted 28 July 2026; Published online 20 August 2026
Abstract
Clove (
Syzygium aromaticum), a member of the Myrtaceae family, is widely distributed throughout tropical regions from Indonesia to China. This research aimed to investigate the antifungal effects and mechanisms of clove essential oil (CEO) against
Fusarium oxysporum, the causal agent of root rot disease in
Pseudostellaria heterophylla and other crops. The inhibitory effects of CEO on mycelial growth, spore germination and ergosterol biosynthesis of
F. oxysporum were assessed through
in vitro assays. The mechanism was initially investigated by analyzing the primary components of CEO using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and performing molecular docking studies with the target enzyme. Results showed that CEO inhibited mycelial radial growth in a dose-dependent manner, with inhibition rates ranging from 16.61% to 100%. The median effective concentration (EC
50) value was determined to be 131.7 μL/L (R
2 = 0.985). Spore germination decreased significantly by 61.6% at 300 μL/L (
p < 0.05), resulting in shortened germ tubes and noticeable morphological changes. CEO inhibited ergosterol biosynthesis in a concentration-dependent manner, disrupting membrane integrity. The inhibition rate can reach 34.6% at 150 μL/L (
p < 0.05). GC-MS analysis identified 24 compounds, with phenylpropanoids representing 92.44% of compounds. Within this category, eugenol and eugenyl acetate were the predominant components, representing 72.51% and 19.66%, respectively. The molecular docking results showed that eugenyl acetate exhibits a strong binding affinity for ERG3 and CYP51, with binding free energies of −6.615 and −6.336 kcal/mol, respectively. This research identifies eugenyl acetate as a key component contributing to the antifungal effect through molecular docking, and reveals a dual-action antifungal mechanism of CEO against
F. oxysporum. These findings suggest that CEO has potential natural antifungal agent for controlling soil-borne diseases by disrupting membranes through ergosterol inhibition.
Keywords
Syzygium aromaticum; phenylpropanoids; morphological analysis; ergosterol biosynthesis; eugenyl acetate
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