Background: In order to avoid potential harm of synthetic additives food, development of novel functional foods containing natural ingredients is considered in current years. In this study, inhibitory effect of Echinophora platyloba Essential Oil (EO) on growth of Aspergillus flavus was evaluated in culture media and cheese.

Methods: E. platyloba EO was extracted by hydrodistillation method using a Clevenger-type system. Growth of A. flavus on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) culture media was assayed using an agar dilution method. The lowest concentration which inhibited the growth of A. flavus was considered as Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and the lowest concentration of EO which eliminated the mold was taken as Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC). Mold spore suspension was inoculated on Iranian ultra-filtered white cheese and the means of two perpendicular diameters of the fungal colony was calculated. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS, Inc, Chicago, IL software (v.16.0).

Results: All concentrations of EO exhibited significant inhibition (p<0.05) of fungal growth in an agar medium. The concentration of 500 ppm of EO reduced the radial growth of A. flavus by 73.9% while higher concentration inhibited completely mold growth. MIC and MFC of the EO was 750 and 1500 ppm, respectively. All the levels of EO had an inhibitory effect (p<0.05) against radial fungal growth in cheese. However, the highest inhibitory effect was seen in cheese group treated with 2000 ppm of EO in which radial growth was reduced by 75.53%.

Conclusion: This study suggested that the E. platyloba as a natural inhibitor was able to control the growth of molds in foods such as cheese.