Advances on plant products with potential to control toxigenic fungi: a review.

In recent years, public pressure to reduce the use of synthetic fungicides in agriculture has increased. Concerns have been raised about both the environmental impact and the potential health risk related to the use of these compounds. Therefore, considerable efforts have been made towards the development of alternative crop protectants. The European Commission has been actively encouraging the development and commercial implementation of new compounds known as 'green chemicals'. In this context, an increase in the knowledge of plant defence responses to toxigenic fungi, which is covered in this review, will help to discover new plant products with antifungal activity and to design new strategies to improve plant resistance to these pathogens.