ABSTRACT
Every year, tons of synthetic products are used in agriculture in order to keep away or kill harmful insects, weeds, or other pests like fungi or viruses. These substances are harmful toward human health and the environment. Essential oils bear a great potential to replace synthetic products or to complement them. Even though they might not be that important in industrialized countries, they can be very useful in less industrialized countries where farmers cannot afford even less toxic syntheticals, as, for example, in Europe. Essential oils can be used as pesticides, insect repellents, weed management substances, or inhibitors of fungi and viruses, and they play also an important role for stored products.
