Chemical Composition of Essential Oils from Eight Tunisian Species and Their Antifungal and Herbicidal Activities.

species are known to produce metabolites such as essential oils (EOs) that play an important role in the control of weeds, pests and phytopathogenic fungi. The aims of this study were as follows: (i) to determine the chemical composition of the EOs derived from eight species growing in Tunisia, and (ii) to study their possible antifungal and herbicidal activities. EOs were obtained by hydrodistillation from the dried leaves of eight species, namely, , , , , , , and , and the determination of their composition was achieved by GC and GC-MS. The EOs' antifungal activities were tested against four strains, and the EOs' herbicidal properties were evaluated on the germination and seedling growth of three annual weeds (, and ) and three cultivated crop species (, and ). The EO yields ranged between 0.12 and 1.32%. The most abundant components found were eucalyptol, α-pinene, -cymene, -pinocarveol, α-terpineol and globulol. All EOs showed significant antifungal activity against the four phytopathogenic strains. EO exhibited the highest level of antifungal activity, and the greatest inhibition of seed germination was obtained even at lowest concentrations used. These findings suggested that , and EOs could have applications in agriculture as possible biopesticides, as antagonists and as bioherbicides.