ABSTRACT
In recent years, use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture has raised serious environmental issues which need to be resolved in order to prevent irreversible damage to the eco-system. Therefore, considering the deleterious effects of synthetic agrochemicals on the environment, there is an urgent need to search for alternative approaches for the management of plant growth and disease. Essential oil components (EOCs) have immense biological activities and, among them, the biocidal activity against a wide range of microbes is of great importance. However, the biocidal activity of EOCs has not been much exploited against plant pathogenic microbes due to many physico-chemical reasons. One among the EOCs is thymol (2-isopropyl-5-methylphenol), which is main monoterpene phenolic compound found in essential oils isolated from plants belonging to the lamiaceae family. Thymol exerts a strong antimicrobial activity against a range of bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. In recent years, thymol has been exploited in order to improve plant growth and can further be used for delivery of agrochemicals. However, its sensitivity to environmental factors, coupled with poor solubility in aqueous medium, has restricted its application in agriculture. One of the most feasible ways to conquer this problem is to encapsulate thymol into nanoemulsion. In this chapter we have focused on various available methods for the preparation of thymol nanoemulsion, its antimicrobial action and current and future applications in agriculture especially in disease protection and plant growth.
