Potential of essential oils for different agricultural uses

Natural products are the basis of a growing number of products used for field and postharvest treatments; in recent weeks the ISHS published the proceedings of the symposium held in Quito in December 2012 on medicinal plants and natural products. While the range of applications far exceeds agricultural and food uses, the papers following papers are related to this type of applications. ?ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF ESSENTIAL OILS AND ETHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF THREE SPECIES OF LAUREL (LITSEA SPP.) FROM GUATEMALA?, by A. C?ceres et al. demonstrated the antibacterial properties of Litsea and opens the way for its use as a base for phytomedicine and food preservation preparations. At ?ESSENTIAL OILS MIXTURES AS INHIBITORS OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES, A FOOD-BORNE BACTERIUM" researchers who participate in the previous paper, show that the mixture of essential oil of oregano and bay gives better results than used separately. Species of the same genus as the pepper plant were evaluated by ME Pach?n S et al as herbicides . The paper "HERBICIDE EFFECTS OF PIPER EXTRACTS ON A SEED BANK IN FUSAGASUGA (COLOMBIA)" explains that after testing the effects on preemergence and postemergence for the control of different weeds (monocots, dicots and Cyperaceae ), highlights the effect of the oil of P. aduncum. In "MINERAL NUTRITION IN BIOMASS AND ORGANIC PRODUCTION OF ESSENTIAL OILS AND QUALITY OF THYME (Thymus vulgaris L.)" J.A. Aguilar -Castillo et al study different fertilizations for growing thyme and conclude that inorganic fertilization increased plant height by 36.8 %; fresh sprouts,72.19 %; the fresh root biomass by 59.27 %; stem diameter , ... etc . The days to harvest they studied did not influence the yield of essential oils. The type of fertilization influeced the yield; at 90 days, the mineral fertilization increased the thymol concentration by 46% thymol and those of carvacrol in 38.4%. Biotransformation applied to fitocomplexes with terpenes and their pure isolated compounds by endophytic microorganisms isolated from the same plant represents a new approach to the production of new molecules in vitro. This is the matter of the paper by L. Scalvenzi, " NEW FRONTIERS OF ESSENTIAL OILS RESEARCH: BIOTRANSFORMATION OF THE PHYTOCOMPLEX AND ITS PURE COMPOUNDS BY ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI ?. At the time of the symposium the taxonomic identification of the lines showing biotransformation capacity was underway . The before summarized papers and all others presented during the Symposium are available in Acta Horticulturae n?mero1030 (link below). ?