Three wood destroying fungi: Botryodiplodia theobromae Pat. (stain), Gloeophyllum sepiarium (brown rot), and Pycnoporus sanguineus (white rot) were exposed to six plant essential oils: the peppermint, kaffir lime or leech lime, lavender, tarragon, holy basil, and the eucalyptus. The peppermint oil showed most effective to inhibit fungal growth, while eucalypus oil was the least effective. The other oils inhibition rate varied according to the species of fungi. In the experiment of the powder post beetles Heterobostrychus aequalis Waterh., the insects were killed within three days in the oil of tarragon, eucalyptus and holy basil, while in lavender oil they could live to ten days the same as controls. But on the contrary in the oil of peppermint and kaffir lime, some of them could even lived longer than the controls.

Download document (208 kb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document