AbstractFungal deterioration is one of the most serious risks for books and paper-based documents in archives. A wide screening for fungi contamination in historic books was conducted by the National Records and Archives, Tanta, Egypt. A large percentage (59.3%) of the screened books showed fungal contamination and deterioration. In this study, the fumes released by smoldering plant species were evaluated for their antifungal activity against isolated fungal species taken from historical documents. Most of the examined plant fumes showed strong antifungal activity as expressed by their minimal inhibitory relative amounts (MIRA),