Evaluation of Essential Oils for in-vitro Management of Dickeya dadantii Causing Soft Rot of Onion

Onion is known as one of the most vital grown vegetable crops which in addition to its quality as a vegetable is being used as salad also in all households, a variety of factors (biotic/abiotic) affects it. Onion is susceptible to various diseases and it is being affected by post-harvest diseases such as bacterial soft rot, it is a decaying bacteria, that causes heavy losses to the onion and also affects the quality by deteriorating the onion and causing heavy economic losses. The most harmful vegetable ailment is regarded as soft rot. It may be found everywhere there are fleshy storage tissues of onion. Five treatments of distinct essential oils were prepared using various concentrations of 5, 10 and 15%, and treatment six was kept as a control. All the concentrations were prepared and were applied against Dickeya dadantii causative agent of soft rot of onions on nutrient agar inoculating plates for their efficacy. The essential oils showed better antibacterial activities against the pathogen Dickeya dadantii in all three concentrations 5%, 10%, 15%. soft rot control (21.33%) was recorded in the case of peppermint oil which is considered as highest, after that by cinnamon oil (17.74%), followed by Kalvanji oil (11.74%), and other oils like Lemon oil and Sesame oil recorded (8.74%) and (3.74%) respectively. However, there was found no inhibition zone in control that was kept without applying any essential oil. The data was statistically analyzed.