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O.42 - Essential Oil and Plant Extracts As Potential Substitutes To Synthetic Fungicides in The Control of Fungi

The document summarizes research investigating the use of essential oils from three aromatic plants (Cymbopogon citratus, Occimum gratissimum and Thymus vulgaris) and crude plant powders as potential substitutes for synthetic fungicides in controlling seed-borne fungi in maize. Bioassays found the essential oils and plant powders reduced fungal growth and controlled 90-100% of seed infections, similar to synthetic fungicides. Treated seeds showed improved germination and seedling vigor compared to untreated seeds. Field tests demonstrated increased plant density with essential oil and plant powder treatment, indicating their potential as affordable alternatives for small-scale farmers.

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30 views

O.42 - Essential Oil and Plant Extracts As Potential Substitutes To Synthetic Fungicides in The Control of Fungi

The document summarizes research investigating the use of essential oils from three aromatic plants (Cymbopogon citratus, Occimum gratissimum and Thymus vulgaris) and crude plant powders as potential substitutes for synthetic fungicides in controlling seed-borne fungi in maize. Bioassays found the essential oils and plant powders reduced fungal growth and controlled 90-100% of seed infections, similar to synthetic fungicides. Treated seeds showed improved germination and seedling vigor compared to untreated seeds. Field tests demonstrated increased plant density with essential oil and plant powder treatment, indicating their potential as affordable alternatives for small-scale farmers.

Uploaded by

Rey Oyan Fabe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ENDURE International Conference 2008

Diversifying crop protection, 12-15 October 2008


La Grande-Motte, France - Oral presentations

O.42 - Essential oil and plant extracts as potential


substitutes to synthetic fungicides in the control of fungi

Tagne, A.1, Feujio, T.P.1, Sonna, C.2.

1
Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Box 2067, Messa Yaounde Cameroon. Ministry of
Scientific Research and Innovation, E-mail: [email protected]
2
Ministry of Agriculture, Yaounde, Cameroon, E-mail: [email protected]

Contact: [email protected]

Abstract
Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in the world. It provides stable food to many populations. In the developing
countries maize is a major source of income to farmers among whom many are resource-poor farmers. Maize cultivation is
limited by diseases which cause grain loss of about 11% of the total production. The control of maize diseases is very important
as a complementary technology to boost maize production. Various approaches have been used over many decades to control
maize diseases. These include breeding for resistance, chemical treatment including seed treatment and biological control. The
limits of these approaches have prompted the need of other alternatives method to control diseases of maize. To this effect the
use of essential oil extracted from 3 aromatic plants have been investigated for the control of seed-borne fungi infecting maize
seeds. These are Cymbopogon citratus, Occimum gratissimum and Thymus vulgaris. Bioassays using poisoning technique
have been used with Fusarium verticilloides as reference fungi. The results disclosed the fungicidal properties of theses oils.
These natural products control the seed-borne inoculum of Fusarium verticilloides from 90% to 100%. Other fungi infecting
maize seeds were also controlled. Crude powder of the plants was also investigated and proved an efficient control of fungi in
seeds during laboratory and field tests. Fields trial conducted in the humid forest and the warm savannah zones of Cameroon
have shown that these products are potential seed treatments which could be used as substitutes to synthetic fungicides which
are usually unaffordable to resource limited farmers.

Introduction
Maize is an important cereal crops in the world. It provides staple food to many populations. In
developing countries maize is a major source of income to farmers among whom many are resource-
poor. Maize cultivation in the world is limited by diseases which cause grain loss of about 11% of the
total production. The control of maize diseases is very important as a complementary technology to
boost maize production. Various approaches have been used over many decades to control maize
diseases. These include breeding for resistance, chemical treatment including seed treatment and
biological control. The limits of these approaches have prompted the need of other alternatives
method to control diseases of maize. To this effect the use of essential oil extracted from three
aromatic plants have been investigated for the control of seed-borne fungi infecting maize seeds.

Materials and methodology


The essential oil was extracted from three plants, Cymbopogon citratus, Occimum gratissimum and
Thymus vulgaris. The extraction method was hydrodistillation using the Clevenger apparatus.
Bioassays were carried out using the poisoning technique of Groover and Moore (1992). The
reference fungus was Fusarium verticiloides isolated from maize seeds and stored on PDA media.
The essential oil was emulsified in agar 1%. The treatment was performed by mixing the seeds and
the agar solution. Treating seeds with synthetic fungicides and crude powder was performed by
dusting. Testing of treated and untreated seeds for fungi was carried out using the blotter method of
Sing et al. (1974).
In the field the planting was 3 seeds per hill at a distance of 50cm between the hills and 75cm
between the rows. This equates to a density of 53333 plants per ha.

O.42 - Tagne, A., Feujio, T. P., Sonna, C. - p. 1


ENDURE International Conference 2008
Diversifying crop protection, 12-15 October 2008
La Grande-Motte, France - Oral presentations

Results

Fungicidal properties
The results of the bioassays showed that the essential oils reduced the radial growth of Fusarium
verticiloides and disclosed fungicidal properties at 200ppm and 500ppm respectively for
O.gratissimum, C. citratus and T. vulgaris.
This result was similar to that of Mishra and Dubey (1994) who evaluated some essential oils for their
toxicity against fungi causing deterioration of stored food commodities.

Control of seed-borne fungi


The three essentials controlled 90 to 92% infections of Fusarium verticiloides and other fungi in the
treated seeds (Table1). This level of control was similar to that of Benlate which achieved 99% control
of the infection.

Table 1: Control of seed-borne fungi in treated seeds.

Treatment Benlate C.citratus O.gratissimum T. vulgaris Non


treated
Dosage/concentration. 0.1%w/w 2% 6% 5% 0%
Control of seed-borne fungi 99% 90% 91% 92% 0%

Improvement of germination
The germination of treated seed shows important improvements between the treated seed and the
untreated control. The germination of the seeds treated with the essential oil was similar to that of the
seeds treated with the synthetic fungicide Benlate.

Table 2: Improvements in the germination of treated seeds.

Treatment Benlate C.citratus O.gratissimum T. vulgaris Non treated


Dosage/concentration. 0.1%w/w 2% 6% 5% 0%
Germination 94% 93 93 91 88%

Improvement of seedling vigour and root mass


During the evaluation of seedlings to determine normal seedlings/abnormal seedlings it was noted that
those from the treated seeds with essential oil were more vigorous. Additionally these seedlings
disclosed higher root mass compared to the non-treated and those treated with Benlate.

Plant improvment in the field


In field tests conducted in the humid forest and the warm savannah zones of Cameroon, plant
densities were highly increased in the plot treated with essential oil. Similar observations were found in
the plots treated with crude powder of the 3 aromatic plants as well as the Benlate.

O.42 - Tagne, A., Feujio, T. P., Sonna, C. - p. 2


ENDURE International Conference 2008
Diversifying crop protection, 12-15 October 2008
La Grande-Motte, France - Oral presentations

Conclusion
It was concluded after these investigations that essential oils and crude powder from aromatic plants
are potential treatments for the control of seed-borne fungi. This research places the oil extracted from
the 3 aromatic plants in the pipeline of new product development for the control of fungi. The crude
powders are potential products which could rightly serve as substitutes of synthetic fungicides whose
cost is usually unaffordable to resource-limited farmers.

References
Tagne A. J Nguefack, C. The, P.H. Amvam Zollo 1998. La lutte Naturelle Contre les Champignons des
Semences de Maïs A l’Aide des Huiles Essentielles Et des Extraits de Plantes. Proceedings of
Biosciences Volume 5, 230-234.
Tagne A. J Nguefack, C. The, P.H. Amvam Zollo and R. Nangmo 2000. Natural Control of Fungi in
grains. Journal of Applied Science in Southern Africa 6: 37-45.
Zonkeng C.G., A. Tagne , C. The, P. Feujio 2003. Effect of synthetic and botanical products on seed
viability and seedling vigour of maize from two agro-ecological zones of Cameroon. In Maize
revolution in West and Central Africa Editors B. Badu Apraku, M.A.B. Fakorode, M. Ouedraogo, R.J.
Carsky and A. Menkir. IITA 336-50.
Tagne A. C. The, P.H. Amvam Zollo, SB Mathur, E. Neergaard 2003. Improvement of emergence,
plant density and yield of maize in the field using seed treatment with synthetic fungicides and
botanicals from aromatic plants. In Maize revolution in West and Central Africa Editors B. Badu
Apraku, M.A.B. Fakorode, M. Ouedraogo, R.J. Carsky and A. Menkir. IITA 336-50.

O.42 - Tagne, A., Feujio, T. P., Sonna, C. - p. 3

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