Antimicrobial activity of medicinal plant to control seed borne pathogen of soybean

Abstract

Several species of fungi belonging to 12 genera viz. Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor mucedo, Penicillium chrysogenum, Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizopus stolonifer, Cephalosporium acromonium, Rhizopus leguminicola, Alternaria alternata, Colletotrichum dematium, Macrophomina phaseolina, Phoma sp., Sclerotium rolfsii and Curvularia lunata were isolated from seeds of soybean cultivars. Among these fungi Aspergillus flavus,  Fusarium oxysporum, and  Alternaria alternata were found to  dominant. Seed borne fungi of soybean can be controlled by using leaf extract of medicinal plant and biocontrol agent. The seeds were treated with leaf extracts of plants like, Azadirachta indica A.Juss., Acacia nilotica (L.) Del., Datura stramonium L., Polyalthia longifolia (Sooner.)Thw., Allium sativum L. and Annona squamosa. An attempt has made to know the efficacy of leaf extract by food poisoning technique. Among these plants Polyalthia longifolia Thw., Allium sativum L. and Azadirachta indica A. Juss. Were more effective than other plants. All these plant extracts showed inhibitory effect on linear growth of dominant fungi.