Isolation of Main Pathogens Causing Postharvest Disease in Fresh Codonopsis pilosula during Different Storage Stages and Ozone Control against Disease and Mycotoxin Accumulation.

is an important Chinese herbal medicine. However, fresh is prone to decay during storage due to microorganism infections, seriously affecting the medicinal value and even causing mycotoxin accumulation. Therefore, it is necessary to study the pathogens present and develop efficient control strategies to mitigate their detrimental effects on the herbs during storage. In this study, fresh was collected from Min County in Gansu Province, China. The natural disease symptoms were observed during different storage stages, and the pathogens causing postharvest decay were isolated from the infected fresh . Morphological and molecular identification were performed, and pathogenicity was tested using Koch's postulates. In addition, the control of ozone was examined against the isolates and mycotoxin accumulation. The results indicated that the naturally occurring symptom increased progressively with the extension of storage time. The mucor rot caused by was first observed on day 7, followed by root rot caused by on day 14. Blue mold disease caused by was detected as the most serious postharvest disease on day 28. Pink rot disease caused by was observed on day 56. Moreover, ozone treatment significantly decreased the development of postharvest disease and inhibited the accumulations of patulin, deoxynivalenol, 15-Acetyl-deoxynivalenol, and HT-2 toxin.