IN VITRO EVALUATION OF ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF MEDICINAL PLANT EXTRACTS AGAINST FOLIAR PATHOGENS OF JAPANESE MINT (MENTHA ARVENSIS)Anamita Sen, Dinesh Rai, R.K. Ranjan, Anupam Kumari and Vivek Kumar PatelAbstract Extracts of eight plants namely neem, tulsi, kalmegh, vasaka, papaya, sanjeevani, giloy and moringa were evaluated in vitro by poisoned food technique at 5%, 10% and 15% concentration against Alternaria alternata and Curvularia lunata causing leaf blight and leaf spot disease in mentha respectively. All the three concentrations of eight plants extracts inhibited radial growth of pathogen significantly compared to control. Among these plant extracts, papaya leaf extract performed best by showing 62.80%, 74.38% and 81.26% mycelial growth inhibition of Alternaria alternata at 5%, 10% and 15% concentration respectively. Mean percent inhibition of mycelial growth of Alternaria alternata with papaya extract was recorded 72.82% which was recorded highest among all other plant extracts. The lowest mean percent inhibition of mycelial growth of Alternaria alternata over control was observed in case of vasaka extract (33.99%). All the three concentrations (5%, 10% and 15%) of papaya extract also found most effective in mycelial growth inhibition of Curvularia lunata i.e., 59.81%, 68.9% and 90.43% respectively. Similarly, highest mean percent inhibition of mycelial growth of Curvularia lunata was recorded in papaya extract (73.05%) followed by kalmegh extract (58.85%). Least mean inhibition percentage of the mycelial growth of Curvularia lunata was found with giloy extract (22.49%). |