Background / Objective.

Aromatic plants contain chemical compounds with potential to formulate antifungal products. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemical composition in hydrolates of Tagetes species and to evaluate their effect in vitro and in vivo against disease-associated fungi in strawberry.

Materials and Methods.

The hydrolates of T. coronopifolia, T. minuta, T. parryi and T. terniflora were analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometry. Hydrolates at 100, 75, 50 and 25 % and Promyl commercial fungicides were evaluated in vitro against Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani and Ridomil Gold against Phytophthora capsici. In the in vivo evaluation, strawberry plants sprayed with the hydrolates and 24 h later the plants were inoculated with 1 x 106 spore suspension. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance and Turkey’s means test (p ≤ 0.05).

Results.

Monoterpenes were the major compounds in the four Tagetes species. T. parryi hydrolate in vitro totally inhibited the growth of B. cinerea being effective as a preventive treatment in the in vivo evaluation. F. oxysporum, P. capsici and R. solani were less susceptible to all the hydrolats.

Conclusion.

T. parryi hydrolate can be applied as a preventative against B. cinerea on strawberry plants.

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