Effect of three tropical african plants on some fungal rot of stored cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta L.)
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Abstract
Antifungal effects of aqueous and ethanol extracts of Chromolaena odorata, Azadirachta indica, and Vernonia amygdalina on the growth of fungal pathogen of stored cocoyam cormels were investigated in-vitro. Pathogenicity test revealed that Botryodiplodia theobromae, Aspergillus niger ,Rhizopus stolonifer and Trichoderma viride induced rot in healthy cocoyam cormels after 9 days of inoculation, and Botryodiplodia theobromae is the most virulent with the highest percentage occurrence of 39.1%, followed by Aspergillus niger (26.0%). Although all the extract showed varying degrees of antifungal efficacy, ethanol extract proved to be more potent. Chromolaena odorata and Vernonia amygdalina showed a complete inhibition of Botryodiplodia theobromae. The effect of the extracts varied with the solvent of extraction, extract concentration and the test pathogens. The inhibitory effect of Chromolaena odorata extract is higher than other extracts in all concentrations and showed a significant (P<0.05) inhibition on all the test fungi pathogens. The fungitoxic potential of these plant extracts on rot inducing fungi of stored cocoyam corms encourages more research on the active ingredient of these plants for easy use by farmers as alternative to commercial/ synthetic fungicides.
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