Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum are potentially important post-harvest pathogens of citrus fruit causing huge economic loss. In this study salicylic acid (SA) and Cinnamomum verum were tested to control the infection of P. digitatum (green mold) and P. italicum (blue mold) as an alternative to chemical control. In an in vitro assay methanolic extracts of five plants were tested for antifungal activity where C. verum exhibited the highest colony growth inhibition 74.6 and 76.4 % of green and blue mold respectively. Moreover, during In Planta assay the combination of C. verum and SA produced the lowest disease incidence (20 and 33.3%) and severity (13.1 and 6.1%) of green and blue mold respectively compared to stand-alone treatments without affecting the fruit quality considerably. Furthermore, an upsurge in the the activity of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD), and phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) encoding genes of citrus fruit was recorded during transcriptional profiling. The highest gene expression was recorded in fruit treated with C. verum and SA in combination compared to healthy control. Similar results were observed during quantification of corresponding gene products. This unveils the fact that the enhanced expression of defense-linked genes might be associated with the disease suppression. Conclusively, our findings indicate that C. verum and SA in combination can suppress green and blue mold of Citrus by modulating the expression of defense-linked genes. The combined use of plant extracts and resistance inducers is a safer alternate to chemicals to suppress green and blue mold during storage.

指状青霉和意大利青霉是柑橘类水果采后潜在的重要病原体，造成巨大的经济损失。在这项研究中，水杨酸 (SA) 和Cinnamomum verum被测试以控制P. digitatum（绿色霉菌）和P. italicum（蓝色霉菌）的感染，作为化学控制的替代方法。在一项体外试验中，测试了五种植物的甲醇提取物的抗真菌活性，其中C. verum表现出最高的菌落生长抑制，分别为 74.6% 和 76.4% 的绿色和蓝色霉菌。此外，在In Planta测定期间，C. verum的组合与单独处理相比，SA 和 SA 分别产生最低的绿色和蓝色霉菌的发病率（20% 和 33.3%）和严重程度（13.1% 和 6.1%），而不会显着影响果实质量。此外，在转录分析过程中记录了柑橘类水果多酚氧化酶 ( PPO )、过氧化物酶 ( POD ) 和苯丙氨酸解氨酶 ( PAL ) 编码基因的活性高涨。在用C. verum处理的水果中记录到最高的基因表达和 SA 组合与健康对照相比。在相应基因产物的定量过程中观察到类似的结果。这揭示了一个事实，即防御相关基因的增强表达可能与疾病抑制有关。最后，我们的研究结果表明C. verum和 SA 的组合可以通过调节防御相关基因的表达来抑制柑橘的绿色和蓝色霉菌。植物提取物和抗性诱导剂的联合使用是一种更安全的化学品替代品，可在储存期间抑制绿色和蓝色霉菌。