Activity of five natural essential oils against fungal contamination in fresh and stored maize grains

Abstract

Thyme, citral, methyl anthranilate, rosemary and clove essential oils were tested for their antifungal activity to investigate the possibility of their use for maize crop treatment to control seed-borne fungi associated to maize grains as Fusarium verticillioides, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Talaromyces verruculosus and other species. The efficacy of the five essential oils against natural fungal mycoflora developed on maize crop under naturally infected field conditions at two experiment trials at three storage intervals on two different media. The percentage of seed germination, the percentage of infection and isolation frequency were reported. The five Eos had a significant inhibitory effect against maize grain germination and fungal frequency. Thyme had the least impact on the germination of maize grains, while clove had an obvious effect in reducing the total frequency of fungal isolates associated to maize grains. The five Eos had an obvious inhibitory activity against the frequency of fungal isolates associated with maize grains. These findings imply that EOs, particularly thyme and clove oils, are effective at controlling maize seed-borne fungi.