Antifungal Effects of <i>Zataria multiflora</i> Essential Oil on the Inhibitory Growth of some Postharvest Pathogenic Fungi

<p>The<strong> </strong>present study aimed to determine minimum inhibitory concentration and<em> </em>minimum fungicidal concentration of the essential oil of <em>Zataria</em> <em>multiflora<strong> </strong></em>to control <em>Alternaria solani, Rhizoctonia solani, Rhizopus</em> <em>stolonifer, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus ochraceus </em>and <em>Aspergillus niger. </em>The essential oil of <em>Zataria multiflora</em> was tested <em>in vitro </em>on PDA (malt extract agar medium) with eight concentrations: 0, 10, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1000 ppm. This investigation followed the completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. GC-MS evaluations of the essential oil revealed that thymol (35%), carvacrol (34%), cymene-p (9.89%), gamma-terpinene (5.88%) and alpha-pinene (4.22%) were the main compounds of <em>Zataria</em><em> multiflora<strong> </strong></em>oil. The results showed that the essential oil of <em>Zataria multiflora</em> has antifungal activity; the lowest inhibition (75%) was observed in the <em>A. niger</em>, while the highest inhibition (95.3%) was observed in <em>A. solani</em>.<em> </em>Minimum inhibitory concentration for <em>A. solani, R. solani, R. stolonifer, A. flavus, A. ochraceus </em>and<em> A. niger</em> was 200, 200, 200, 300, 300 and 200 ppm respectively. In addition, the present results showed that minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) for <em>A. solani, R. solani, R .stolonifer, A. niger</em> and <em>A.ochraceus</em> was 600, 400, 300, 900 and 700 ppm respectively and none of the tested concentrations were fatal for <em>A. flavus</em>.<em> A. solani </em>and<em> R. solani </em>showed a strong sensitivity to<em> Zataria multiflora</em> essential oil at all concentrations. Findings of the current study suggest that essential oils of <em>Zataria</em><em> multiflora</em> could be used for control of postharvest phytopathogenic fungi on fruits or vegetables.