Antioxidant and Antifungal Effects of Six Plant Essential Oils Against Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum

Six aromatic plants (<i>Lavandula pedunculata</i> subsp. <i>sampaioana</i>, <i>Lavandula stoechas</i> subsp. <i>luisieri</i>, <i>Mentha × piperita</i>, <i>Origanum vulgare</i> subsp. <i>virens</i>, <i>Thymus mastichina</i>, and <i>Thymus zygis</i> subsp. <i>sylvestris</i>) were analyzed to evaluate their essential oil (EO) yield, chemical composition, antioxidant activity, and antifungal capacity against two mold species, green mold (<i>Penicillium digitatum</i>) and blue mold (<i>Penicillium italicum</i>). The antioxidant activity was evaluated using the ABTS and DPPH methods, and the antifungal activity was determined using the disk diffusion method. The results of the antioxidant activity tests showed that the essential oil of <i>Th. zygis</i> subsp. <i>sylvestris</i> has the highest value for the ABTS method (161.70 ± 0.15 mM TROLOX eq. and 864.20 ± 0.81 g TROLOX eq/g EO) and the <i>L. stoechas</i> subsp. <i>luisieri</i> essential oil in the DPPH method (33.91 ± 1.21 mM TROLOX eq. and 184.99 ± 6.58 g TROLOX eq/g EO). Furthermore, the essential oils with lower antioxidant activity were <i>L. pedunculata</i> subsp. <i>sampaioana</i> for the ABTS method (3.84 ± 0.26 mM TROLOX eq. and 20.79 ± 1.41 g TROLOX eq/g EO) and <i>Th. mastichina</i> for DPPH method (0.96 ± 0.03 mM TROLOX eq. and 5.31 ± 0.16 g TROLOX eq/g EO). <i>Th. zygis</i> subsp. <i>sylvestris</i> exhibited the strongest antifungal activity, with medium inhibition halo values of 60.50 ± 5.77 mm and 54.33 ± 2.93 mm for <i>P. digitatum</i> and <i>P. italicum</i>, respectively.