Shiitake mushroom, (Lentinula edodes), used in this study was harvested in November from a local farm in Hangzhou, China. The mushrooms were transported to the laboratory within 1 h after picking, under refrigerated conditions, then stored in darkness at 1 ± 1 C and 95% relative humidity (RH). The day after, mushrooms were screened for uniform size and maturity and absence of mechanical damage. In a preliminary experiment, we tested a series of concentrations of each essential oil, including clove, cinnamaldehyde and thyme, namely, 1, 5 and 10 lll
. All essential oils at the concentration of 1 or 5 lll
significantly inhibited fruit decay, and 5 lll
had an even better effect. However, 10 lll
essential oil fumigation treatment caused some physiological injuries, including discolouration or a smelly flavour, in shiitake mushrooms (data not shown). Thus, a concentration of 5 lll
was chosen for these experiments. A total of 60 shiitake mushrooms were placed in 2 l sealed polypropylene (PP) containers with a filter paper inside the cover. A total of 10 ll of each essential oil, including clove, thyme, and cinnamaldehyde, was spotted onto the filter paper. These containers were kept at 10 C and the essential oils were allowed to vapourise within the containers. Afterward, sealed PP containers were opened and stored for 20 days at 4 ± 1 C and 90% relative humidity (RH), and subsequently every 5 days, three replicates from each treatment group were analysed.