Chemical composition and antifungal activity of essential oils against die-back of hippeastrum

Die-back is an important foliar disease infecting leaves of hippeastrum plants. The present investigation is based on the efficacy of 17 essential oils which were analyzed for their antifungal activity against Lasiodiplodia theobromae causing die-back of hippeastrum. Then the effective essential oil was further subjected to GC-MS for the identification of active chemical compounds. Of these, lemon grass oil was found to be more effective and caused complete growth inhibition of pathogen even at 0.005% concentration compared to other oils tested. Further, the chemical compounds were isolated from lemon grass oil through GC-MS identified 12 compounds. These compounds may be responsible for the inhibition of pathogen.