Actividad biocida de dos plantas cosechadas en Cuba contra hongos aislados del ambiente de depósitos de archivos.

INTRODUCTION: Fungi are the main biological agents that cause biodeterioration in heritage documents. Fungal colonization is favored by high values of relative humidity and temperature in tropical climates. Products used in their control are composed of chemicals with harmful effects on people and accelerate the deterioration of materials. Today we continue to search for alternatives such as the rational use of natural products from plants. PURPOSE: Evaluate the antifungal activity of anise and lemongrass essential oils against four fungal strains isolated from indoor air of repositories of the National Archives of Cuba. METHODOLOGY: The hole-plate diffusion in agar plate method was used. As controls thymol 5% and benzalkonium chloride 10% were used. RESULTS: Both essential oils showed positive antifungal activity against all strains at the concentration of 50%, except in Aspergillus flavus in the first case and Aspergillus niger for the last. The activity of both oils was negative 10% for all strains except the essential oil of lemongrass against Penicillium aurantiogriseum, also affectation was observed in the conidiogenesis the genus Aspergillus. CONCLUSIONS: The results were similar between the studied oils and thymol 5%, being superior than the benzalkonium chloride 10%; besides, affectation in the conidiogenesis of genus Aspergillus was observed, which restricts pollution of documents and staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]