en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Background: </strong>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 <em>Echinophora platyloba</em> Essential Oil (EO) on growth of <em>Aspergillus flavus </em>was evaluated in culture media and cheese.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Methods:</strong> <em>E. platyloba</em> EO was extracted by hydrodistillation method using a Clevenger-type system. Growth of<em> A. flavus </em>on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) culture media was assayed using an agar dilution method. The lowest concentration which inhibited the growth of <em>A. flavus </em>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).</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Results:</strong> All concentrations of EO exhibited significant inhibition (<em>p</em><0.05) of fungal growth in an agar medium. The concentration of 500 ppm of EO reduced the radial growth of <em>A. flavus </em>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 (<em>p<</em>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%<em>.</em></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> This study suggested that the <em>E. platyloba</em> as a natural inhibitor was able to control the growth of molds in foods such as cheese.</span></p> Oils Volatile, Aspergillus flavus, Culture Media, Cheese, Food Safety 122 127 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-130&slc_lang=en&sid=1 H. Hasanvand No Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Shahrekord, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran H. Moshtaghi hmoshtaghi@yahoo.com Yes Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Shahrekord, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran A. Heshmati No Nutrition Health Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran M. Boniadian No Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Shahrekord, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran M. Abbasvali No Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Shahrekord, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran