Management of Fungal Diseases Associated with Germination and Growth of Moringa Oleifera Lamarck with Botanicals.
ABSTRACT
Studies were carried out at the of Crop , University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) to botanicals’ control of diseases associated with the growth and of Moringa .
Five accessions of Moringa seeds collected from Imo, Enugu, Kogi, Plateau, and Kaduna states of Nigeria were used.
The following experiments were carried out: seed viability test, isolation of fungal pathogens, determination of phytochemicals, in vitro control of the pathogens with six botanicals, phytotoxicity test of the botanicals on M. oleifera seeds, and early growth study of the treated and untreated seeds.
The viability test revealed significant (p < 0.05) differences in some of the germination traits of the five accessions of moringa seeds.
Kaduna accession gave the highest number of days to first germination (approx. 6 days) followed by Jos and Imo with the same value (approx. 4 days) and the lowest was Nsukka (approx. 3 days).
The following organisms were isolated from the seed coats; namely, Aspergillius niger, A. flavus, A. glaucus, Fusarium oxysporium, Mucor spp, Cunnighamella spp, Penicillium digitatum. Only A. flavus was isolated from the cotyledon (seed without coat).
The percentage of disease incidence was highest in Kaduna (99.90%) on seed with coat and (89.75%) on seed without a coat. Enugu accession had the lowest percentage disease incidence (10%) and (0%) for seed with coat and those without coat respectively.
Aspergillus flavus had the highest percentage frequency of occurrence (16.31%) while the value for Fusaruim oxysporium and Mucor spp were lowest and statistically the same (0.27%).
At both 50 and 70 grams/liter levels of concentration, Aspilia Africana leaf extract showed the highest percentage growth inhibition for 14 days while the lowest was obtained in Cassia alata.
Phytotoxicity test revealed that at 50 grams/liter O. gratissemum leaf extract significantly ( p < 0.05) gave the highest number of days to first germination (approx. 6 days) while A. Africana leaf extracts gave the lowest (approx. 4 days).
The main effects of Aspilia Africana leaf extract treatment on plant height, stem girth, number of leaves, number of buds and number of nodes were significant (p , 0.05).
The seedlings treated with Aspilia Africana leaf extracts at 12 weeks after planting had higher plant height, stem girth, number of leaves, number of buds, and number of nodes than the untreated. (Treated: 59.61, 3.21, 17.90, 4.51 and 18.18 cm) while the untreated gave lower values (untreated: 54.58, 3.19, 16.60, 4.27 and 15.89 cm) respectively.
The duration of storage significantly (p < 0.05) affected the incidence of diseases on the fresh and stored Moringa oleifera leaf products.
Two months of storage gave the highest percentage of disease incidence (19.66%) which differed significantly (p <0.05) from others. Zero storage (at harvest) gave the lowest value (0.92%).
The result of the study shows that all the leaf extracts inhibited the growth of the fungal isolates but Aspilia Africana leaf extract was more effective because it gave relatively less adverse effect to germination and growth of the Moringa oleifera seeds tested.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page ……………………………………………………………………. i
Certification………………………………………………….………………ii
Dedication……………………………………………………………… iii
Acknowledgments……………………………………………..………….. iv
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………….. . v
List of Tables………………………………………………………………….. vi
Abstract…………………………………………………………………ix
Introduction…………………………… ………………………….………..….…1
Literature review………………… …… ……………………………….…..…… 4
Materials and methods……… ……… ……………………………..13
Experiment one ………………………………………………….…….. 13
Experiment two……………………………………….……………………16
Experiment three………………………………………………20
Experiment four………………………………………….………21
Experiment five…….……………………….…………………22
Results………………………… ……………………….… 24
Experiment one ………………………………………………………….…….. 24
Experiment two…………………………………………….……………………30
Experiment three……………………………………………………………32
Experiment four…………………………………………………………….………55
Experiment five……………………………………………….…………………69
Discussion…………………………………………………..…………. . 74
References…………………………………………………………………………. 79
INTRODUCTION
Moringa oleifera Lamarck belongs to the family of Moringaceae which consists of 13 species of deciduous trees (Keay, 1989; Price, 1985).
Other species of Moringa in the family are M. arborea, M. berzian, M. concanensis, M. drouhaddi, M. hildebrandtii, M. longituba, M. ovalifolia, M. peregrina, M. pygmaea, M. rivae, M. ruspoliana and Moringa stenopetala. Moringa oleifera is the most cultivated among all the species in the family Moringaceae.
It is a native of India but is widely distributed in many tropical and pacific regions, in West Africa as well as Central America and the Caribbean (Freiberger et al., 1998; Locket et al., 2000; Ramachandran et al., 1980 and Aregheore, 2002).
The common name of Moringa oleifera is Moringo in Malabar (a region in southern India) and it is believed to be the origin of the generic name (Jackson, 1990). It appears to have more names than any plant ever studied.
It is known as Rawag in Arabic, Kelorin in Indonesian, Horseradish tree, Drumstick tree in English (Hutchinson and Dalziel 1966), Ewe igbale (Ewe ile) in Yoruba, Zogallagandi (Zogalle) in Hausa, Okwe oyibo in Igbo (Gbile, 1984).
The common names are Miracle tree, Lifesaver, Never die, etc. (Ofor et al., 2011).
Every part of Moringa plant is useful; the root, seed, leaf, etc. (Fahey, 2005) and may be consumed raw, roasted, cooked, and processed domestically or industrially.
The products of this tree have been reported to be useful to nutritionists, animal scientists, pathologists, entomologists, environmentalists, practitioners of natural medicine, etc. (Ofor et al., 2011).
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