ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF ESSENTIAL OILS AGAINST PEPPER BACTERIAL SPOT AGENTS
TACA VANCHEVA1*, MARTA ENCHEVA-MALINOVA1, MARTINA TATYOZOVA1, VELIZAR GOCHEV2, MARIYA STOYANOVA3, PENKA MONCHEVA1, NEVENA BOGATZEVSKA2
1 – Department of General and Industrial Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria
2 – Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, Plovdiv University “P. Hilendarski”, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
3 – Institute of Soil Science, Agrotechnologies and Plant Protection “N. Pushkarov”, Sofia, Bulgaria
*Corresponding author: tacavancheva@gmail.com
Keywords: antibacterial activity, essential oils, Xanthomonas vesiatoria, Xanthomonas euvesicatoria
Abstract: Various essential oils have potential for use in alternative strategies for plant pathogen control. In this work twelve essential oils and several of their components were screened for antibacterial activity against the causative agents of bacterial spot of pepper – Xanthomonas vesicatoria and Xanthomonas euvesicatoria, using the agar diffusion method. Almost all essential oils and their components showed a strong inhibitory effect against the tested bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration varied between 0.39% and 6.25%, depending on the different oils and strains. The potential of the oils for treatment of infected pepper seeds for control of X. vesicatoria and X. euvesicatoria was investigated. All of them showed high decontamination activity (between 73 and 90%), but the seed germination was inhibited at the concentrations used. Additional studies for establishing the optimal treatment concentration ensuring good levels of both decontamination and seed germination are needed.