ABSTRACT

This study was carried out at the Crop Science and Soil Science laboratories of the faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City to determine the efficacy of plant essential oils in the control of fungi of stored groundnut. The experiment involved three plant essential oils- Garlic oil, Almond oil and Jojoba oil in concentrations of 0.01%, 0.1% and 1% which were used as treatment on the diseased groundnut crop in a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement fitted into a Completely Randomized design that was replicated three times. Data was collected on the zone of inhibitions of the fungi -Aspergillus niger for seven days. The duration of this experiment was 14 days. Results on this showed that there was no much significant differences among the oils that were used as treatments. There was however, slight significant difference between the plant essential oils and the control. It was also noted that at 1% concentration garlic oil had the most efficacy, at 0.1% jojoba oil was the most effective treatment and at 0.01% almond oil had the most efficacy. Based on this study, we would recommend the use of garlic oil at 1% concentration, jojoba oil for use at 0.1% concentration and almond at 0.01% concentration for the control of Aspergillus niger in stored groundnut crop. When evaluated on the basis of availability, garlic oil is the most recommended.