ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF ETHANOLIC AND PETROLEUM ETHER EXTRACTS OF SOME MEDICINAL PLANTS AGAINST THE PLANT PATHOGENIC FUNGUS NIGROSPORA ORYZAE (BERK. & BROOME) PETCH

Smrity Prabha*, Smita Henry Gaurea, Ujwala C. Bapat and Jyoti Kumar

ABSTRACT

Anti-fungal activity of ethanolic and petroleum ether extracts of eight medicinal plants (viz., Acorus calamus Linn, Justicia adhatoda L. Lawsonia Inermis L., Lantana camara Linn., Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre, Solanum nigrum Linn, Vitex negundo L. and Wedelia chinensis (Osbeck) Merr.) was tested in-vitro (using poison food method) against phytopathogenic fungus Nigrospora oryzae (Berk. & Broome) Petch. Results showed that the petroleum ether extracts of leaves of J. adhatoda, L. inermis and Solanum nigrum did not inhibit the mycelia growth of N. oryzae. Nevertheless, ethanolic extracts of A. calamus rhizome, P. pinnata and L. inermis showed 87.7%, 50.96% and 49.81% inhibition, respectively against the mycelia growth of N. oryzae. The most promising results were obtained with the petroleum ether extract of A. calamus, which exhibited 100% inhibition of N. oryzae with MIC of 8.41 mg/ ml. Anti-fungal activity of different plants‘ extracts prepared in two different solvents were found to be significantly different from one another in the two-way ANOVA test.

Keywords: Antifungal activity, Nigrospora oryzae, Acorus calamus, poison food technique.