The aim of this study was to find an alternative to synthetic fungicides currently used in the control of faba bean chocolate
spot fungal pathogen, Botrytis fabae. For this purpose, the effect of 12 essential oils (EOs) isolated from different medicinal and aromatic plant species against B. fabae has been studied in vitro. Complete inhibition of growth and spore formation of the pathogen by EOs of thyme and caraway however, was observed at 1.0 μl ml-1. Oils of rue, garlic and cloves were inhibitory at relatively higher concentrations (2.5 μl ml-1). Under field conditions, oils of thyme, rue caraway and garlic, gave pronounced protection of faba bean plants against invasion of chocolate spot pathogen. The maximum reduction of disease incidence (DI) and severity (DS) of chocolate spot along the growth period in both growing seasons (2010/2011 & 2011/2012) was observed by garlic, followed by caraway and cloves oils. All morphological traits (plant height and no. of branches & leaves/plant) and yield components (pods no./plant and weight of 100 seeds) significantly increased by the application of garlic oil, while caraway oil came in the second order. Also, application of the previous treatments presented significant increases in the photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and b and carotenoids), polyphenol oxidase and total phenol in faba bean plants. This study has demonstrated that the EOs are potential and promising antifungal agents, which could be used as biofungicide in the protection of faba bean against Botrytis fabae.