Antifungal potential of Colchicum luteum and determination of colchicine content using HPLC for application as a fungicide

Colchicum luteum L. is an economically important medicinal plant species of the North Western Himalaya. The corm extract of this plant is utilized in the treatment of many diseases. It is also used extensively in plant breeding program for the doubling of chromosomes. The antifungal activities of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the corm of the medicinal plant Colchicum luteum were investigated in this study. These extracts were tested against the fungi, Colletotrichum sp. and Fusarium oxysporum. The ethanolic extract of corm (100 mg mL⁻¹) inhibited Colletotrichum sp. and F. oxysporum with inhibition zones of 19.2 mm and 18.3 mm, respectively, whereas the aqueous extract of corm (100 mg mL⁻¹) inhibited Colletotrichum sp. and F. oxysporum with inhibition zones of 17.1 mm and 15.2 mm, respectively. Colchicine was isolated from several plant components (corms, seeds, leaves, and flowers) and its concentration was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The corm had the highest percentage of colchicine (0.191% ± 0.036) of all the plant parts examined, followed by the seeds (0.103% ± 0.021). As a result, it can be said that the corms and seeds of C. luteum could serve as a natural source of colchicine for the pharmaceutical industry.