ABSTRACT:
The objective of the present work is to evaluate the in-vitro antifungal activity of petroleum ether and methonolic leaf extracts from eight different plant species against Colocasia esculenta L. post-harvest decay fungi including Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Geotrichum candidum, Rhizopus oryzae and Penicillium sp. Previously, these fungi were isolated from the rotten colocasia tubers collected from different market places of some districts of Odisha, India. In-vitro antifungal efficacy of petroleum ether and methonolic leaf extracts of Abutilon indicum (L.) Sweet, Ageratum conyzoides L., Alstonia scholaris (L.) R.Br., Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam., Averrhoa carambola L., Cassia fistula L., Centella asiatica Urban. and Dillenia indica L. were tested against five test fungi by poison food technique. The efficacy of plant extracts was compared with four commercial fungicides such as Blitox-50, Dhanustin, Indofil and Macozeb. The result revealed that the plant extracts were more effective against the five pathogenic test fungi as compared to the four commercial fungicides. The results on the efficacy of test botanicals to control the growth of test fungi indicated that the petroleum ether extract of A. heterophyllus was most effective against A. flavus, petroleum ether extract of A. conyzoides against A. niger, petroleum ether extract of Ageratum conyzoides against G. candidum, methanolic extract of Artocarpus heterophyllus against R. oryzae, petroleum ether extract of Averrhoa carambola against Penicillium sp.