Evaluation of antifungal potential of leaf extract of chenopodium murale against fusarium oxysporum f. Sp. lycopersici

Abstract

The present study was performed to evaluate antifungal activity and GC-MS analysis of leaf extract of Chenopodium mural against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (FOL), a highly problematic soil-borne pathogen of tomato. Dried leaves of C. murale were extracted with methanol for 2 weeks and after evaporating the solvent on a rotary evaporator, antifungal bioassay was carried out against FOL. All concentrations (1 to 5%) significantly reduced FOL biomass by 14-45%. The remaining methanolic extract was fractioned with n-hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate and all these fractions were assayed for their antifungal potential. A 200 mg mL-1 concentration of various sub-fractions reduced fungal biomass significantly by 94-98% over control. All the sub-fractions were subjected to GC-MS analysis that revealed presence of 32 compounds in n-hexane, 2 compounds in chloroform and 13 compounds in ethyl acetate sub-fraction. The predominant compounds in n-hexane sub-fraction were hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester (14.64%), methyl linolenate (16.61%) and g-sitosterol (13.53%). In chloroform sub-fraction, bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (92.31% and in ethyl-acetate sub-fraction, ethyl butyrate (19.57%), dihexyl phthalate (11.19%) and dioctyl phthalate (12.16%) were present in higher concentration.