Synthetic fungicides have been used as the main tool to control fungal infection on growing and harvested crops. It has been estimated that over 23 million kilograms of these synthetic fungicides are used annually worldwide and it is felt that production and marketing of fruit and vegetables would not be possible without their use (Tripathi and Dubey, 2004).
The use of such chemicals has increased consumer concern and their use is becoming more and more restricted due to toxicity problems and environmental pollution. Thus there is an increasing interest in finding useful alternatives to chemical fungicides that are safe and have negligible risk to human health and the environment.
Among these strategies, natural products with antifungal activity are attractive because they are readily biodegradable and, therefore, could be less toxic to the environment and consumers.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved or alternative antifungal compound or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.