فرناز فکرت

Bean is one of the most important vegetable crops in the world. However, the production of bean suffers great economic losses due to grey mould, caused by Botrytis cinerea. This pathogen has a large host range including more than 200 host species of vegetables, ornamentals plants, and fruits. It seems that some medicinal plant extracts (MP) provide a potentially useful method for disease management under greenhouse and field conditions. This study was conducted to evaluate antifungal activity of aqueous extracts of MP and ability to induce resistance in laboratory and greenhouse conditions. Potential of aqueous extracts of four MP including thyme (Thymus vulgaris), caraway (Carum carvi) and colocynth (Citrullus colocynthis) as well as wormwood (Artemesia annua) to control the fungus B. cinerea was investigated. To test for the antifungal activity of aqueous extracts of MP on the growth of Botrytis, an assay was done in Petri dishes containing PDA including 1% the test solution) 1gr per 100 ml (. Plates containing only PDA were used as control. After that a mycelial plug from B. cinerea was taken with a cork borer and placed at the centre of agar medium in MP treated dishes.. The plates were then incubated for 6 days at 24°C.. All test solutions indicated antifungal activity. On the other hand, all aqueous medicinal plants extract were able to control the above mention pathogen at in vitro conditions. To find out induction of resistance, 2week-old bean plants were sprayed with 1% aqueous extracts of MP or distilled water as control. One day later primary leaves of bean plants were inoculated by putting 10 droplets of 10 µl of conidial suspension which was prepared by 106 spore’s mL-1 of B. cinerea by using the detached leaf method. Disease development was evaluated 4 days later by recording number of spreading and non-spreading lesions. Results indicated that all aqueous extracts of MP tested were able to reduce the number of B. cinerea spreading lesions significantl