International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies ISSN 2028-9324 Vol. 17 No. 4 Sep. 2016, pp. 1120-1124 © 2016 Innovative Space of Scientific Research Journals http://www.ijias.issr-journals.org/ Corresponding Author: Latifa Boudine 1120 Antifungal activity of oregano essential oil and thymol against some fungi isolated from corn grains Latifa Boudine 1 , Bouchra Louaste 1 , Noureddine Eloutassi 2 , Najat Chami 1 , Fouzia Chami 1 , and Adnane Remmal 1 1 Laboratoire de Biotechnologie, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Faculté des Sciences Dhar Mahraz, Fès, Maroc 2 Laboratoire des Sciences de la vie et de la terre, Centre Régional des Métiers de l’Education et de la Formation, Fès, Maroc Copyright © 2016 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT: The development of fungi in stored grains present a health risk to customers due to their ability to produce and accumulate mycotoxins. Then, chemical antifungal agents are applied to grains to reduce their contamination by molds. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antifungal potency of oregano essential oil and thymol on some species of fungi involved in corn spoilage. Molds were isolated, and then identified by their macroscopic and microscopic characteristics after cultivation on standard media. The antifungal activity of oregano essential oil and tymol was conducted by broth dilution method. The mold species isolated were Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium sp., Fusarium sp., and Mucor sp. Oregano essential oil and thymol demonstrate an antifungal effect against all these isolates. These compounds may be useful as alternative in limiting or preventing the development of harmful fungi and mycotoxins in food. KEYWORDS: Fungi, corn, oregano essential oil, thymol, antifungal activity. 1 INTRODUCTION Corn grains provide an excellent substrate for the growth of molds and subsequent synthesis of mycotoxins [1], [2]. The most frequent fungal contaminants belonged to Penicillium, Aspergillus and Fusarium. The presence of these molds is also a health risk to consumers due to their ability to produce and accumulate mycotoxins [3], [4], [5]. It is therefore necessary to use antifungal agents to reduce this fungal contamination. Frequent use of these antifungal agents led to the emergence of resistant strains to these agents, as well as the presence of toxic residues in grains [6], [7], [8]. Therefore, the search for alternative drugs with low resistance substantial attention has focused on natural products with antifungal properties. Several studies have shown that essential oils (EOs) have an inhibitory effect on the growth of many fungi that contaminate several foodstuffs [9], [10]. The objective of our study was twofold: Firstly, it attempts to isolate and identify some molds that contaminated corn grains. Secondly, it purports to evaluate the antifungal effect of oregano EO and thymol against some fungi species isolated from corn. 2 MATERIAL AND METHODS 2.1 MATERIAL The maize used in this study is a local variety destined to animal alimentation. It was provided by Alf Sahel-Fes, Morocco.