Antifungal efficacy of neroli and palmarosa essential oils against major white button mushroom postharvest pathogens

Abstract White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) has a wide nutritional benefit and a major drawback in supply chain management, due to its short shelf-life of between 3 and 4 days. Postharvest spoilage caused by Trichoderma and Rhizopus including green-mould and soft-rot diseases causes an enormous impact on the shelf-life of mushroom. Research work is designed to isolate the post-harvest pathogens from mushroom and determine the effects of eight essential oils on the control of the major postharvest pathogens (T. lentinulae and R. arrhizus). Neroli and palmarosa exhibited 100% inhibition of the two pathogens at 3 and 4 μL/plate, respectively. In-vivo studies showed that fumigation of neroli and palmarosa essential oils at concentrations of 46.2 and 61.6 μL L−1 exhibited a significant effect on the postharvest pathogens. Major components present in neroli and palmarosa are linalool and geraniol respectively. Findings concluded that neroli and palmarosa could be an efficient natural fungicide to reduce postharvest diseases in white button mushroom.