Allelochemicals from native plants of Argentina: Control of stored grains fungi

Abstract

Grain rot is caused by Fusarium and Aspergillus fungal species, these also cause major diseases in cereal crops. They reduce crops yields and contaminate the grains with mycotoxins (secondary metabolites produced by fungi), harmful to health of humans and livestock. Currently these are controlled by fungicides (i.e. azoles) before harvest and by food preservatives (i.e. short chain fatty acids and their salts). These compounds have several disadvantages, hence, are currently under strong scrutiny. Plant allelochemicals (phenolics) and essential oils are an alternative to replace the present commercial fungicides. These are only a small fraction of all allelochemicals available. This review, describes the current status to control grain rot fungi with plant allelochemicals, to search these compounds and our own research results to use the allelochemicals of native Argentinian plants against Fusarium and Aspergillus species.