Behnaz Bagherieh - Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
Parissa Taheri - Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

Fungal pathogens of plants in different climates cause challenging problems in crop cultivation and economic threats. To control fungal pathogens due to serious side effects of artificial fungicides for human health such as carcinogenesis, allergies and genetic problems, lack of environmental balance and development of resistance to chemical fungicides in populations of fungal pathogens, identification of safe alternatives to control fungal pathogens such as natural plant materials are considered as one of the principled methods. Plant essential oils contain a wide range of antifungal secondary metabolites and play an important role in environmental adaptation and plant evolution. Plant essential oils reduce the spore germination of fungal phytopathogens, disintegration of fungal hyphae and formation of vacuoles in these structures, cytoplasmic coagulation, protoplast leakage, deformation of intracellular organelles of plant pathogenic fungi such as mitochondria, inhibition of enzymatic reactions in mitochondrial membranes and affected by the entry and exit of ions into the fungal cell, and finally reduce their pathogenicity on the host plants.

Essential oils and plant extracts, Fungal diseases, Seeds