Vol. 4, Issue 12, Part F (2018)

Abstract
Plants contain several biologically active compounds that are potentially antimicrobial. Food contamination and spoilage in baking industries need to be controlled using natural bio preservatives rather than chemical additives which are being outlooked today because of health and safety concerns. The present study evaluates the antifungal potential of five medicinal plants in their aqueous and ethanolic extract. The different concentrations of these extracts were screened against the major spoilage organisms Mucor and Rhizopus isolates from deteriorated bakery products and accordingly the radial growth of hyphae was measured. The ethanolic extracts of all the four test plants were found to be more efficient than the aqueous preparation. Among the tested species Oxalis corniculata was most responsive and showed maximum fungal inhibition for Mucor (90.77%) and Rhizopus (88.89%). These findings could help these extracts to be used as safer ingredient as natural bio preservative with antimycotic property.