Evaluation of the effect of Thymus vulgaris oil on growth and fungal biomass of Rhizoctonia solani

In the present study, we evaluated the antifungal activity essential oil of Thymus vulgaris against Rhizoctonia solani as important pathogen on tomato plants. The T. vulgaris EO was extracted using a Clevenger apparatus. A total of thirteen compounds, representing 98.6 % of the oil were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The main components of thyme oil were included thymol (48.9 %), p-cymene (15.8 %), borneol (8.1 %), γ-terpinene (5.7 %), isoborneol (3.7 %) and 4-terpineol (3.2 %) that identified by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values obtained for thyme oil was considerably lower than the values obtained for synthetic fungicides such as Thiabendazole and Tebuconazole. The results of this evaluation of indicate that a compound found in thyme oil was effective in reducing growth and fungal biomass. These results indicate that thyme oil after suitable formulation could be used for the control of soil-borne fungal pathogens of tomato, especially Rhizoctonia solani are common in many parts of the world.