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To evaluate the antifungal activity of five commercial extracts against Candida albicans in vitro, five commercial extracts obtained from Allium sativum, Chamaemelum nobile, Thymus vulgaris, Zingiber officinale and Ricinus communis were tested at three different concentrations (pure, 1/2 and 1/4) for their antimicrobial activity against C. albicans using agar disc diffusion method. C. albicans was least susceptible to the commercial extracts. The diameter of zone inhibition ranged between 6 and 13 mm. Z. officinale and T. vulgaris extracts appeared to be the most active, while A. sativum, C. nobile and R. communis extracts exhibited most weak antifungal activity against C. albicans. These findings increase the possibility of exploiting these commercial extracts as a safe alternative natural preservative.

Garlic is a very important crop in Egypt and in whole world and cultivation of garlic in new reclaimed soils is broadly increasing. Thus, these experiments were conducted in a newly reclaimed sandy soil of the experimental farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, New Valley University, Kharja, Upper Egypt during the two successive seasons of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. The experiments aimed to study the effect treatment of licorice root extract on garlic cultivars and on growth behavior and bulbs production and quality. Results showed that all growth traits of garlic plants, production of bulbs, and quality of those bulbs were enhanced by cloves soaking and plants foliar sprayed with licorice root extract using different concentrations; 0.0, 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 g/L. Hence, these promising cheap treatments could be recommended for garlic producers who plant garlic under similar environmental conditions to get high yield of garlic green or dry bulbs with high qualities suitable for local production or exportation.