Natural compounds of plant origin in the control of fungi and mycotoxins in foods

Contamination of fungi causes billions of economic losses on food commodities. Moreover, the mycotoxins they produced arise human health issues worldwide due to the acute and severe toxicity. To avoid the negative effects on the environment and the possibility of increasing the fungi resistant of using synthetic chemical fungicides, immense efforts have been taken to seek for safe and effective alternatives. Previous study has shown that plant extracts and/or their natural compounds possess fungicidal potentials against certain pathogens. Therefore, this review focuses on the occurrence of mycotoxins and the progress made in the last three years on the application of plant extracts and natural compounds as alternative control method, as well as the challenges in utilizing them in real practice.