ABSTRACT
Fungal pathogens have the potential to cause significant economic losses during the commercialization of fresh horticultural produce, and synthetic fungicides are widely used to control postharvest diseases. However, the presence of fungicide residues on horticultural produce and the ability of the fungi to develop resistance to fungicides continue to be major challenges. Therefore, there is a real need for developing safer alternatives to offer safer food with good quality. The quest for alternatives to reduce the use of synthetic fungicides to control postharvest diseases has in recent years increased the search for natural compounds derived from plants. Plants contain a wide variety of chemical compounds with antifungal properties. Furthermore, some of these present few negative toxicological or environmental effects, and minimal or no impact on the fruit taste, so they have great potential for the control of postharvest diseases. However, they present some disadvantages such as reduced and inconsistent efficacy, so intensive research has been undertaken to increase their effectiveness to use them on a commercial scale. This chapter summarizes published literature from 2010 to the present and describes the occurrence and biosynthesis of plant-derived compounds with antifungal activity, the methodology for the discovery of novel plant fungicides, as well as experiments in which the antifungal activity to control postharvest diseases of plant extracts and plant-derived compounds was demonstrated when applied after the harvest of several horticultural products. Also, some experiments carried out with the goal to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of fungal response to compounds derived from plants with fungicide activity will be addressed.
