Bioactivity of laurus nobilis and mentha piperita essential oils on some phytopathogenic fungi (in vitro assay)

Extraction of essential oils from locally available plants: laurus nobilis and mentha piperita were carried out using steam-distillation method. extracted oils were screened for their chemical composition and antifungal activity in order to find new metabolite compound which are characterized by a biological activity. twenty-two constituents,representing 99.7% of the essential oil of laurus nobilis was determined by gc-ms analysis. the main compounds identified are 1,8-cineole (45.36%),followed by bornylene (17.25%),linalool (8.13%),and sabinene (7.48%),when twenty-three compounds were identified,representing 99.9% for mentha piperita oil. the principal components are: carvone (51.04%),limonene (36.37%) and ß-pinene (1.66%),which compose 89.07% of the oil. the antifungal activity of oils was tested using the direct contact method against the growth of fusarium moniliforme,fusarium solani,fusarium oxysporum and stemphyliumsolani. the results showed great potential of natural antimicrobial activity against strains tested. our results clearly demonstrate that the essential oils of selected plants can well present an interesting alternative naturel may be useful as biofongicides.