4.6.4. Inoculation

Surface-disinfected fruits (oranges, lemons and apples) were wounded with a 2 mmdiameter plastic tip at four points along the equatorial surface; then, 10 μL of conidial suspension (*P. digitatum* strain P1PP0 for citrus and *P. expansum* strain CECT2278 for apples) was pipetted into each wound. Inoculated fruits were incubated in a plastic container at 20 ◦C and 80% RH (relative humidity) for 24 h. For all fruit (oranges, lemons and apples), the treatment with "Nitric-extract" as such or as a dilution was carried out as follows: after the incubation period, at each inoculation point, 20 μL of the substance was placed into the wound; overall, 3 fruits per treatment were used. An additional control group, represented by 3 fruits wounded as above, received 20 μL of sterile distilled water (sdw) per wound. The experiment was repeated another two times, with similar results. Analysis of variance did not reveal any differences among the experiments (F not significant); therefore, only the results of a single experiment are reported here.
