Antifungal Activity of Woody Essential Oil

Essential oils were obtained from three trees by steam distillation. Several fractions of hinoki and sugi oils were also obtained by fractional distillation. The antifungal activities of these oils and the fractions were estimated against ten fungi containing white rot, brown rot, soft rot, and mouldous fungi. The vapor of oils from hinoki leaves and wood exhibited comparatively high antifungal activities. After minimization of the vapor effect, the activities of all oils mixed into PDA medium were higher than those of copper sulfate, and some of oils were comparable to p-chlorophenol in effectiveness. Comparatively high antifungal activities were also recognized when oils from Hinoki leaves and wood were mixed into PDA medium. Mostly, fractions with high boiling temperature exhibited high activities. Among the fungi used, mouldous fungi with poor ability of wood rotting were generally more resistant than wood-rot and soft-rot fungi to the many woody essential oil.