Abstract

ANTIFUNGAL PROPERTIES OF BUCHANANIA LANZAN ESSENTIAL OIL AGAINST GROUNDNUT SEED MYCOFLORA

R. B. Allapure*

Abstract

The increased use of pesticides in the field of agriculture has become major source of environmental pollution affecting the ecosystem; consumption of organomercurial fungicides which are primarily used for seed treatment is gradually increasing. A wide variety of fungicides used for seed treatment are being produced in India. These include organomurcurial, thiram, mancozeb etc. These fungicides applied to crop are long lived and residues persist in soil causing pollution. In the present studies evaluation of essential oil from seeds of Buchanania lanzan was used for groundnut seed treatment which showed maximum efficacy against seed mycoflora. The essential oil inhibited the seed mycoflora to greater extent with respect to fungi like Alternaria, Fusarium, Rhizopus, and Curvularia. Buchanania lanzan seeds contain a variety of essential oils and antifungal components like camphene, a-pinene, y-terpinene, b-pinene, myrcene, 8-cineole, sabinene and triglycerides like triolein, dipalmitoolein and dioleopalmitin which may be responsible for antifungal activity. Among different concentrations of essential oil tested, 3% extract showed maximum inhibition of phytopathogenic fungi. Thus, the use of plant based biopesticides, which are target oriented and biodegradable is now essential to control plants diseases and for sustainable agriculture.

Keywords: Antifungal, Mycoflora and Buchanania lanzan.