Cinnamon bark essential oil compounds and its antifungal effects against fungal rotting of fruits

Cinnamon essential oil has been used for centuries to protect food from microbiological infection and in the last ten years cinnamon essential oil is also incorporated into food packaging materials as antimicrobial agent. The Main objective of the present study was to determine the antifungal activity of cinnamon essential oil against Botrytis cinerea, Aspergillus niger and Penicillium digitatum fungi isolated from grapes, tomato, and orange. Cinnamon Essential oil was extracted by the Clevenger-type apparatus and identification and amount of the essential oil was performed by using chromatography–mass spectroscopy and gas chromatography. Analysis of the total essential oil content showed that cinnamaldehyde (89.51%), cinnamyl acetate (4.56%), cinnamaldehyde (p-methoxy) (0.97%) and cubebene (0.29%) were the major constituents. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of cinnamon oil against B.cinerea, A. niger and P. digitatum were 200 µl/l and minimum fungicidal concentrations were 400 µl/l for three pathogens. The antifungal activity of cinnamon oil against A. niger and B.cinerea was stronger than that against P. digitatum in MIC concentration and the activity was improved with increasing its concentration. In vivo study, the fungi in the vicinity of concentration 600 µl/l of cinnamon essential oil grown in fruits—11.53% for strawbery, 7.30% for tomato and 10.10% for orange. These results revealed that cinnamon essential oil has a good potential to be as a natural antifungal agent for control postharvest fruit and vegetables disease.