Industrial Crops and Products 55 (2014) 116–122 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops and Products jo u r n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Antifungal activity of selected essential oils against fungi isolated from medicinal plant Tatjana Stevi ´ c a , Tanja Beri ´ c b , Katarina ˇ Savikin a , Marina Sokovi ´ c c , Dejan God ¯evac d , Ivica Dimki ´ c b , Slaviˇ sa Stankovi ´ c b,∗ a Institute for Medicinal Plants Research, Tadeuˇ sa Koˇ s´ cuˇ ska 1, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia b Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia c Institute for Biological Research “Siniˇ sa Stankovi´ c”, University of Belgrade, Bulevar Despota Stefana 142, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia d Institute for Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, Njegoˇ seva 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 8 October 2013 Received in revised form 3 February 2014 Accepted 7 February 2014 Keywords: Antifungal activity Essential oils MIC In situ a b s t r a c t The development of protective products with natural origin as alternatives to synthetic fungicides is currently in the spotlight. Qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis of 16 selected essential oils was determined. Then, antifungal properties determined by in vitro microdilution method against 21 fungi isolated from herbal drugs were evaluated. All tested oils showed some antifungal activity against all fungi used. Savory, thyme and oregano oils, characterized by the presence of phenol such as carvacrol and thymol, and rose oil containing mainly monoterpene alcohols (citronellol and geraniol) proved to be the most effective inhibitor of all fungi tested. Also, combination of particular oils showed reduction of the MIC values when combined, commendatory mixtures for potential application in practice. Moreover, the reduction of the total number of fungi, in situ, using selected essential oils was determined. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Interest in traditional medicine and, in particular, herbal medicines, has increased substantially in both developed and developing countries over the past two decades. Global and national markets for medicinal herbs have been growing rapidly and significant economic gains are being realized. As a conse- quence, the safety and quality of herbal medicines have become increasingly important concerns for health authorities and the pub- lic alike. The safety and quality of raw medicinal plant materials and finished products depend on factors that may be classified as intrinsic (genetic) or extrinsic (environment, collection methods, cultivation, harvest, post-harvest processing, transport and stor- age practices). Inadvertent contamination by microbial or chemical agents during any of the production stages can also lead to deteri- oration in safety and quality. In addition to the crop loses, presence of the fungi in medicinal plants reduces their quality and usefulness (Essono et al., 2007). Moreover, under certain conditions, some of ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +381 11 2637364; fax: +381 11 2638 500. E-mail addresses: tstevic@mocbilja.rs (T. Stevi ´ c), tanjab@bio.bg.ac.rs (T. Beri ´ c), ksavikin@mocbilja.rs (K. ˇ Savikin), mris@ibiss.bg.ac.rs (M. Sokovi ´ c), dgodjevac@chem.bg.ac.rs (D. God ¯evac), ivicad@bio.bg.ac.rs (I. Dimki ´ c), slavisas@bio.bg.ac.rs (S. Stankovi ´ c). the ubiquitous fungal contaminants could secrete the toxic metabo- lites, mycotoxins, with powerful mutagenic and carcinogenic effect. Mycotoxins are thermo stable and cannot be destroyed by cooking. They have cumulative ability and are eliminated hard from the organism (Hashem and Alamri, 2010). The usual antimicrobial chemicals used in agriculture for plant disease control (benzimidazoles, aromatic hydrocarbons and sterol biosynthesis inhibitors) are associated with series of problems. Cur- rently, there is a strong debate about the safety aspects of chemical preservatives since they are considered responsible for many car- cinogenic and teratogenic attributes as well as residual toxicity (Skandamis et al., 2001). For these reasons, consumers tend to be suspicious of chemical additives and thus the demand for natural and socially more acceptable preservatives has been intensified. The increase of fungal resistance to classical drugs, the treatment costs, and the fact that most available antifungal drugs have only fungistatic activity, justify the search for new strategies (Rapp, 2004). The exploration of naturally occurring antimicrobials for food preservation receives increasing attention due to awareness of natural food products and a growing concern of microbial resis- tance towards conventional preservatives (Schuenzel and Harrison, 2002). In the past decade, due to concerns regarding safety of the synthetic antimicrobial agents, the particular interest has been focused on the potential applications of essential oils as alternative http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2014.02.011 0926-6690/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.