Field survey of seed borne fungi was carried out on some seed crops in the
newly reclaimed soils. Two standard methods for seed health testing have been acted
to determine the percentage of disease incidence of each crop. Six essential oils suggested to have antifungal effect were tested.Carvone oil
was more effective than thyme, caraway, peppermint, lavender and eucalyptus (blue
gum) oils respectively. In vivo tests its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was 50
ppm however, 400 ppm inhibited the five tested pathogens, Ascochyta pisi,
Cephalosporium maydis, Col/etotrichum dematium, Fusarium oxysporum and
Macrophomina phaseolina .Thyme and caraway oils reduced the growth of tested
fungi at 800 ppm. The highest concentration of treated oils ir.duced reduction of
disease severity, except of eucalyptus oil. seed germination was reduced following
exposure to that tested oils at different exposure times. Keywords: oily plant extracts, seed borne fungi.