Field Assessment of Lamium album in Reducing Mycotoxin Biosynthesis in Winter Wheat Infected by Fusarium culmorum

Pascaline Aimee Uwineza (), Maria Kwiatkowska, Romuald Gwiazdowski, Łukasz Stępień, Marcin Bryła and Agnieszka Waśkiewicz
Additional contact information
Pascaline Aimee Uwineza: Department of Chemistry, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 75, 60-625 Poznan, Poland
Maria Kwiatkowska: Plant-Pathogen Interaction Team, Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 60-479 Poznan, Poland
Romuald Gwiazdowski: Research Centre for Registration of Agrochemicals, Institute of Plant Protection—National Research Institute, Władysława Węgorka 20, 60-318 Poznan, Poland
Łukasz Stępień: Plant-Pathogen Interaction Team, Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 60-479 Poznan, Poland
Marcin Bryła: Department of Food Safety and Chemical Analysis, Prof. Waclaw Dabrowski Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology—State Research Institute, Rakowiecka 36, 02-532 Warsaw, Poland
Agnieszka Waśkiewicz: Department of Chemistry, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Wojska Polskiego 75, 60-625 Poznan, Poland

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-13

Abstract: Fungicides play a crucial role in conventional agriculture for disease control, but their prolonged use raises health and environmental concerns. Fusarium culmorum ( F. culmorum ), a major wheat pathogen causing Fusarium head blight (FHB) and Fusarium crown rot (FCR), poses significant mycotoxigenic threats. The application of natural plant extracts has been proven to fight against phytopathogenic fungi. This study aimed to a field experiment that was carried out at the Field Experimental Station of the Institute of Plant Protection—National Research Institute in Winna Góra, Poland, during the 2022/2023 season to evaluate the potential of Lamium album ( L. album ) flower extract as a foliar spray against mycotoxigenic fungi in two winter wheat varieties: Arkadia and Julius. The supercritical carbon dioxide extraction method (SC-CO 2 ) was employed to obtain the L. album flower extract. Ergosterol (ERG) and mycotoxin accumulation in the harvested wheat grains were analyzed using chromatography-based methods. The results demonstrated a notable reduction in ERG content in the field plots treated with L. album flower extract, from 26.07 µg/g (control group) to 8.91 µg/g (extract-treated group) for Arkadia and from 70.02 µg/g (control group) to 30.20 µg/g (extract-treated group) for Julius. The treatment with L. album reduced mycotoxin biosynthesis in both varieties, with deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN) production significantly decreased. Additionally, Arkadia exhibited greater resistance to Fusarium infection, and the antifungal effect of L. album was more pronounced than in the Julius variety, which proved to be more sensitive. In conclusion, L. album flower extract exhibited promising antifungal effects in field experiments to fight against F. culmorum in winter wheat varieties, suggesting a potential alternative to synthetic fungicides. However, as complete prevention of mycotoxin contamination was not achieved, further research is warranted to optimize extract concentrations and conduct long-term analyses to consider this plant extract as a sustainable control agent.

Keywords: winter wheat; natural plant extract; plant protection efficiency; sustainable agriculture; in vivo antifungal activity (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: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/5/647/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/5/647/ (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:14:y:2024:i:5:p:647-:d:1380635

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 ().