Abstract

Postharvest diseases cause considerable losses to harvested fruits and vegetables during transportation and storage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antifungal potential of Thymus danensis and Thymus carmanicus against fourpostharvest pathogenic fungi (Rhizopus stolonifer, Penicillium digitatum, Aspergillus niger and Botrytis cinerea) which can reduce the shelf life of strawberry fruit. Thechemical composition of plant oils was determined by capillary gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Antifungal assays were carried out in vitro using PDA plates. Antifungal potential was found for 2 analysed essential oils. T. carmanicusoils have chemical compositions characterized by carvacrol (70%), p-cymene (12.4%) and γ-terpinene (2.5%) as the major components while the major constituents of the T. danensis were thymol (64.8%), α-terpinene (11.3%) and p-cymene (7.9%). Thymus sp. oils showed inhibitory effect even at low concentration (300 µl/L) against B. cinerea and R. stolonifer and showed inhibitory effect againstA. niger and P. digitatum at 600 µl/L. Both essential oils tested in vivo at the preliminary concentration exhibited inhibitory activity against the four pathogens.

Key words: Thymus danensis, Thymus carmanicus, antifungal activity.