| Summary: | The current study was conducted to evaluate the effect of eight Palestinian indigenous plant
essential oils (EOs) under in vitro and in vivo conditions against Botrytis cinerea Pers.: Fr.,
Penicillium italicum Wehmer, and Penicillium digitatum (Pers.) Sacc., three common post-
harvest pathogens of tomato and strawberry fruits. In vivo tests showed that thyme, sesame
and sage EOs exhibited high antifungal activity against B. cinerea on strawberry and toma-
to fruits, compared with rosemary, mint and eucalyptus. In vitro agar, disk-diffusion tests
showed that B. cinerea, P. digitatum and P. italicum mycelium growth was completely inhi-
bited when treated with clove and sage EOs caused 50% inhibition of B. cinerea and P. itali-
cum mycelium growth. Fruit decay and fruit quality index values measured in total soluble
solids and fruit flesh firmness showed that EO coated strawberries had significantly less
fruit decaying and ripping compared to control, while EO coated tomatoes showed no sig-
nificant difference compared to control. EO constituents fall into different chemical classes,
including sterols, caffeoylquinic acids, flavonoids, terpenoids, coumarins, and acetylenes.
Chemical analysis of the EO preparations using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
determined that the main components in sesame oil were octadecenoic acid-(56%) and
hexadecanoic acid (26%), while clove oil consisted of eugenol (53%). In the other EOs, the
principal compounds were: menthol (44% in mint oil), eucalyptol (37% in sage oil), while
bornanone (18% in rosemary oil) and γ-terpinene (21% in thyme oil) were present at lower
concentrations. The EO of sage plants could potentially be a useful alternative to synthetic
pesticides to control post-harvest diseases and prolong the shelf life of fruit products.
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