Biological control of postharvest fungal rots of rosaceous fruits using microbial antagonists and plant extracts – a review

This article aims to give a comprehensive review on the use of microbial antagonists (fungi and bacteria), botanicals and compost extracts as biocontrol agents against different pathogenic fungi causing postharvest fungal rots in rosaceous fruits which shows that they can play an important role in the biomanagement of fungi causing rot diseases. Plant extracts reported in the literature against pathogenic fungi indicate that they can act as a good biological resource for producing safe biofungicides. However most of the work has been done under experimental conditions rather than field conditions. There is still a need for research to develop suitable formulations of biofungicides from these microbial biocontrol agents and plant extracts. The review reveals that extensive ecological research is also required in order to achieve optimum utilisation of biological resources to manage various postharvest diseases of fruits.