Efeito in vitro do óleo essencial de Eucalyptus globulus sobre o crescimento e desenvolvimento de Penicillium sp.

Abstract

Penicillium sp. is the casual agent of moulds, considered the main citrus post-harvest disease, causing loss on the quality and quantity of marketable fruits. Besides economic loss, it can be included costs, transportation and fruit storage problems. The present work had the objective to verify the fungitoxic action of Eucalyptus globules essential oil on the in vitro control of Penicillium sp., evaluating mycelial growth, production and spores germination. The experiment was conduced on the Microbiology laboratory of PUC, Toledo campus, with eight treatments: 1%, 0,5%, 0,25%, 0,1%, 0,05% e 0,025% concentrations of eucalyptus oil added to PDA media (potato-dextrose-agar), negative control (PDA with addition of 40mg of azoxystrobin/L) and positive control (PDA media only). The experimental design was according to a completely randomized design, with five replicates each treatment. The eucalyptus essential oil inhibited significantly the growth in the 1%, 0,5% e 0,25% concentrations, not differing statistically from control with fungicide azoxystrobin. The treatments presented the same behavior for spores production. For spores germination, the 1% e 0,5% concentrations had better control than treatment with azoxystrobin and the concentration of 0,25%. Others oil concentrations did not present significative results on the evaluations, being statistically equal to positive control (PDA).