April 2017 Vol. 5 No.4

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Fagbohun E
Babalola JA

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Original Research Article

Antimicrobial susceptibility study of three medicinal plants on selected food and cash crops pathogens

^*1Fagbohun Emmanuel Dayo, ^2,3Lawal Opeyemi Uwangbaoje and ⁴Babalola Joshua Adekunle

¹Department of Microbiology, Ekiti State University, P.M.B 5363, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria
²Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, New University of Lisbon, Portugal
³Department of Biological Sciences, Evangel University Akaeze, P. M. B. 129, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
⁴Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine. Hallym University, Chuncheon. South-Korea

*Corresponding Author’s E-mail: drfagbohun08@gmail.com,
Tel.: +2347089498222

Accepted April 14, 2017

Abstract

The use of chemicals for the control of pathogens in agriculture is of great concern especially because of their detrimental effect in the environment. Studies have shown that plants contain bioactive antimicrobial compounds but few studies address the effect of these compounds on plant pathogens. Here, we evaluate the antimicrobial activities of methanolic extracts of plants on plant pathogens. The phytochemicals present in the plants studied include alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids and cardiac glycoside. Also, the plants contain nutrients in varying composition with highest percentage in carbohydrate content and lowest percentage in moisture content. The mineral present also include Na, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn and P. The radial mycelial growth and dry mycelial assay were used to test for activities against common phytopathogens at varying concentrations. The comparative study showed that Ficus exasperata exhibited the strongest antimicrobial activities against all the test organisms. The results of this study showed that the plants studied contains bioactive compounds which may serve as alternative to chemical based biocides for the control of food and cash crops pathogens.

Keywords: Bioactive compounds, environment, food crops, cash crops, phytopathogens