ANTI-MYCOTIC ACTIVITY OF GARLIC EXTRACTS AND EXTRACT FRACTIONS IN-VITRO AND INPLANTA

This study was designed to evaluate the inhibitory effects of garlic e xtracts on the growth of pathogenic molds in planta, using cherry toma toes as the test commodity. As expected, aqueous and ethanolic extract s of garlic were inhibitory in vitro to a wide range of molds previous ly isolated from contaminated produce. The extracts were only moderate ly effective at reducing lesion diameter caused by the growth of two A lternaria spp. Several attempts to further isolate the active inhibito r by solid phase extraction were not successful. These results suggest that despite the effectiveness of garlic as a mold inhibitor in vitro , the whole garlic extract is only moderately effective inhibitor in p lanta.