A 5 mm diameter cork borer was used to cut the mycelium and cultured on PDA for four spots, which were 2.5 cm from the centre. The chitosan beads without EO or with lavender or red thyme EO at 0.125 g or 0.25 g were put in the sterile plastic cup, which was placed at the centre of the plate. The inoculated plate without chitosan beads served as control. The plate was sealed with parafilm and incubated at 25 C. The expansion of the colony size was measured. The experiment was done in two replications.