Antifungal Activity of Plant Essential Oils Against Botrytis cinerea, Penicillium italicum and Penicillium digitatum

<p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Plant essential oils have the potential to replace the synthetic fungicides in the management of postharvest diseases of fruit and vegetables.The aim of this study was to access the </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">in vitro </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">and </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">in vivo </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">activity of essential oil obtained from oregano (</span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Origanum vulgare </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">L. ssp. </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro Subh,Garamond Premr Pro Subh; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro Subh,Garamond Premr Pro Subh; font-size: x-small;">hirtum</span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro Subh,Garamond Premr Pro Subh; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">), thyme (</span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Thymus vulgaris </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">L.) and lemon (</span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Citrus limon </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">L.) plants, against some important postharvest pathogens (</span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Botrytis cinerea</span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">, </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Penicillium italicum </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">and </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">P. digitatum</span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">). </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">In vitro </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">experiments indicated that </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">P. italicum </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">did not show any mycelium growth in presence of thyme essential oils at concentration of 0.13 μl/ml. Moreover, </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">B. cinerea </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">did not show any mycelium growth in presence of lemon and oregano essential oils at concentration of 17 μl/ml and 0.02 μl/ml, respectively. Moreover, the essential oils from three species were effective in reducing the spore germination. The </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">in vivo </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">experiments confirmed the strong efficacy shown in vitro by essential oils. These oregano and lemon oils were very effective in controlling disease severity of infected fruit by </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">B. cinera </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">in tomatoes, strawberries and cucumbers. In tomatoes, grey mould due to </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">B. cinerea </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">was completed inhibited by oregano essential oils at 0.30 μl/ml. Moreover, lemon essential oils induced a significant reduction of grey mould disease severity. In strawberries, grey mould was completed inhibited by lemon essential oils at 0.05 μl/ml. In addition, lemon essential oils at 0.05 μl/ml showed 39% reduction of infected cucumber fruits by </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">B. cinerea</span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">. These results indicate that essential oils after suitable formulation could be used for the control of postharvest diseases caused by </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Botrytis </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">and </span><em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;">Penicillium </span></span></em><span style="font-family: Garamond Premr Pro,Garamond Premr Pro; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">pathogens. </span></p>