Published Paper Details:

Fungal disease in plants is still challenging to control and require proper management practices. Fungal diseases cause severe economic losses due to their high speed of infection ability through spores followed by the destruction of plants and crops. However, a wide range of synthetic fungicides are available for the control of pathogens but their improper use can create hazardous effects for animals, humans and the environment. Findings of this study revealed that hydroalcoholic crude extract and partially purified benzene fraction exhibit effective inhibition ability against the test pathogen when the data compared with the values of standard fungicides used in the study as the positive control. Further this partially purified preparation (Benzene fraction) was used to formulte herbal formulation and checked for in vivo disease mangemnet of the host pathogen i.e. Alterneria alternate, a causal organism of early blight of tomato. It was done by foliar spray, seed dipping and soil amendment with bioformulation prepared from Moringa oleifera leaf extract in combination with neem oilcake and cow dung. . The preventive action was studied as a function of a decrease in disease severity, change in growth characteristics of host plant such as the number of leaves/plants, branches/plant, flower/plant, of fruit/plant, the weight of fruit of a healthy,infected and untreated plant. A significant control of Early blight disease was recorded with bio formulations treatment T3 [seeds were treated with partially purified benzene extract (4 ml): 100% castor oilcake (4 ml): 100% cow dung (2 ml)], T4 [seeds were treated with partially purified benzene extract (2 ml): 100% castor oil cake (4 ml): 100% cow dung (4 ml)], T2 [seeds were treated with 50% alcoholic crude extract (3 ml): 100% castor oil cake (4 ml): 100% cow dung(3 ml)] and T1 [seeds were treated with 50% alcoholic crude extract (2 ml): 100% castor oil cake (2 ml): 100% cow dung (6 ml)] as compared to other bioformulation treatments and its PDI and PEDC were recorded 15.4%, 16.08%, 17.6%, 22.20% and 78.61%, 76.66%, 75.50%,69.16%, respectively. Results showed that treatment with bioformulation treatment T3, notably increased plant height, number of leaves perplant, number of fruits per plant, the weight of fruits per plant, number of branches per plant and number of flowers per plant content followed by formulations number T4,T2,and T3. These bioformulations can be further explored for their target-specific disease prevention strategy. More and intense field experiments are required for their commercial and viable use in agricultural field conditions. Owing to their efficacy in the control of leaf blight disease of tomato plants, their industrial and commercial production for widespread application can be initiated in near future.