Antifungal Potential of Plant Extracts against Seed-borne Fungi Isolated from Barley Seeds (Hordeum vulgare L.)

A laboratory experiment was conducted to study the efficacy of some botanicals against seed-borne fungi isolated from barley. Alternaria alternata was the most frequently isolated fungi followed by Rhizopus spp., and Mucor spp., determined by plating the seeds on both standard blotter and agar plate method. Leaf extracts of five plants viz., Eucalyptus globulus, Calotropis procera, Melia azedarach, Datura stramonium and Acalypha indica @ 5%, 10% and 20% concentration were evaluated against A. alternata. The results revealed that all the plant extracts significantly inhibited the mycelial growth of A. alternata. Effect of these five plant extracts varied with the concentrations. Leaf extract of E. globulus at 20% concentration caused highest inhibition of mycelial growth of A. alternata (52.6%) followed by C. procera (50.88%), M. azedarach (48.21%) and D. stramonium (47.42%), whereas the lowest inhibition (37.52) of mycelial growth was recorded at 5% leaf extract concentration in case of A. indica as compared to control. However, seed treatment at 20% concentration of all the tested plant extracts was also found to be effective in eliminating majority of fungi and reducing the relative frequency of seed-borne fungi occurring on the seeds and also results in percent germination increase in both standard blotter and agar plate method over control.