Fungicidal Activity of Some Metallic Ions, Fungicides and Essential Oils for Preventing Biodeterioration of Old Manuscripts

Aims: The main goal of this work to investigate the fungicidal activity of some metallic ions and essential oils which were to be applied as alternative protective of synthetic fungicides for old manuscripts and documents.

Place and Duration of Study: Sample: Studies were conducted at three floors (as indoor sampling sites) of the National Library and Archives of Dar El-Kottob, Egypt during one year, between November 2012 to October 2013.

Methodology: By using the Food Poisoned Technique 11 metallic ion, 5 fungicides and 5 essential oils were used to investigate their effective against the two selected fungal isolates Fusarium oxysporum and Trichoderma viride to evaluate these protective agents by measuring their effect on fungal mycelial (linear) growth and cellulolytic activity.

Results: The results revealed that of 11 metallic ions tested only metallic ions of CoCl2, FeSO4, NiCl2, CuSo4 and ZnSO4 at 100 mM were completely inhibited the linear growth of F. oxysporum, while the same concentration of CoCl2, FeSO4, FeCl3 and NiCl2 also completely inhibit the growth of T. viride. For cellulases activity, all metallic ions at different concentrations inhibit the activity, except CoCl2, which increased the avicelase enzyme activity of F. oxysporum. Results for T. viride were little different than F. oxysporum. In vitro effect of fungicides, formaldehyde was found to be toxic to F. oxysporum and T. viride causing complete inhibition at all concentrations with percentage inhibition of 100%. Present study also indicated that, all tested essential oils were found to highly effective and gave 100% reduction in the growth of the two tested fungi at the higher concentration of 0.4%. The Anise essential oil was most effective against F. oxysporum and T. viride responsible for 91.80 and 100 mean % inhibition respectively followed by Rocket essential oil responsible for 82.90 and 89.97 mean% inhibition respectively.

Conclusion: Metallic ions (CH3COOH)2 Pb completely inhibited the linear growth of F. oxysporum and T. viride at low concentration (10 mM), as well as formaldehyde which gave percentage inhibition of 100% for both organisms. Anise essential followed by Rocket gave 100% reduction in the growth of the two tested fungi at the higher concentration of 0.4%.