Composition and antifungal activity of essential oils of Mentha piperita and Lavendula angustifolia on post-harvest phytopathogens

The general antifungal activity of essential oils is well documented. The advantage of essential oils is their bioactivity in the vapor phase, a characteristic that makes them attractive as possible fumigants for stored product protection. Essential oils of aerial parts of Mentha piperita and Lavendula angustifolia were obtained with hydrodistillation and oils composition identified with GC-MS. Menthanol (36.24%) and menthone (32.42%) were the major compounds of the M. piperata essential oil. The essential oil of L. angustifolia was rich in linalool (49.2%) , linalyl acetate (12.3%), Lavendul acetate (6.5%), 4-terpineol (5.9%). Fungal toxicity of the essential oils were evaluated against three pathogenic fungi (Rhizopus stolonifer, Botrytis cinerea and Aspergillus niger) in vitro. Plate assayes showed that the different concentrations of essential oils have antifungal activity against these fungi, and the essential oil of L. angustifolia showed stronger fungistatic activity. Lavendula oil exhibited complete growth inhibition of all pathogens at 1000 ppm and minimum EC50 (311.24 ppm) resulted on B. cinerea.