Initial In Vitro Assessment of the Antifungal Activity of Aqueous Extracts from Three Invasive Plant Species

Ahmed M. Abbas, Stephen J. Novak, Mahmoud Fictor, Yasser S. Mostafa, Saad A. Alamri, Sulaiman A. Alrumman, Mostafa A. Taher, Mohamed Hashem and Rafat Khalaphallah
Additional contact information
Ahmed M. Abbas: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Stephen J. Novak: Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725-1515, USA
Mahmoud Fictor: Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt
Yasser S. Mostafa: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Saad A. Alamri: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Sulaiman A. Alrumman: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Mostafa A. Taher: Department of Biology, College of Arts and Science, King Khalid University, Muhayl 62529, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed Hashem: Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Rafat Khalaphallah: Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: The development of new, safe, and effective methods of managing fungal pathogens is required. This study was conducted to perform an initial in vitro assessment of the antifungal activity of water-based plant extracts from three plants which are invasive in Egypt: Prosopis juliflora , Ipomoea carnea , and Leucaena leucocephala . These extracts were tested against three pathogenic fungi species that cause high crop losses in Egypt: Fusarium solani , Alternaria solani , and Colletotrichum circinans . Three extract concentrations, 10%, 20%, and 30%, were tested using a completely randomized design, with three replicates per treatment. Antifungal activity was determined based on the effects of plant extracts on fungal radial growth inhibition, average daily growth of fungi, spore formation, spore germination, and total biomass. Inhibition of the growth of fungal strains increased with increasing plant extract concentration, with the highest inhibitory rate at the 30% extract concentration. In addition, spore density, spore germination, and total biomass decreased significantly with increasing extract concentration. The three fungal pathogens differed in their inhibition and their response to these plant extracts. Prosopis juliflora had the highest inhibitory effect on the three fungal pathogens, compared to the extracts from the other two invasive plants. The results of this feasibility study indicate that P. juliflora extracts have high antifungal activity and follow-up in vivo assays should be conducted to determine their efficacy in the safe and sustainable management of these and other fungal pathogens.

Keywords: plant extracts; invasive plants; phytopathogenic fungi; Fusarium solani; Alternaria solani; Colletotrichum circinans; Prosopis juliflora; Ipomoea carnea; Leucaena leucocephala (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/8/1152/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/8/1152/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:8:p:1152-:d:880102

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().