Tomato is considered a model plant in genetics and to be one of the most economically important crops of all those that exist in the world. Several species of fungi are reported on tomato fruit, causing damage both during cultivation and after harvest. Some of appropriate actions that could be initiated to taken to resolve the problem are to develop and search for new antimicrobial substances isolated from bioactive natural product, as essential oils.The aim of this work was to determine the chemical composition of essential oils of Ammoides verticillata, Allium sativum and Curcuma longa, to evaluate their in-vitro antifungal activities and evaluate in-vivo antifungal effect of essential oils blends in an effort to reduce tomato diseases.The essential oils obtained from aerial parts of plants were analyzed by GC/MS and tested for their antifungal activities against Penicillium expansum, Fusarium solani, Rhizopus stolonifer and Alternaria alternata using the radial growth technique method. The effectiveness in-vivo of the association between Allium sativum and Curcuma longa essential oils was also investigated studied on tomatoes inoculated by fungi.The essential oil from A. verticilata wad mainly composed by phenolic compounds (54.4%), the A. sativum oil was mainly composed by sulfur compounds (91.5%) and C. longa oil was dominated by oxygenated monoterpenes (82.0%). The obtained results in-vitro antifungal revealed that individual essential oils of A. verticillata and A. sativum was more active than the essential oil of C. longa against all screened microorganisms. An important antifungal effect of A. sativum and C. longa essential oils blend was obtained against P. expansum (100%), F. solani (95.2%), R. stolonifer (95.1%) and A. alternata (48.5%). Furthermore, A. sativum and C. longa essential oils blend has demonstrated promising in-vivo antifungal activity to control infection of tomato against P. expansum and R. stolonifer.A. sativum and C. longa essential oil blends can be used as a natural food preservative and alternative to chemical fungicides to protect stored tomato against many phytopathogens.
