Search

Severe leaf spot disease was observed on Aloe vera plants in the winters of 2011 and 2012 during a survey of various nurseries of Gwalior, India. Irregular, sunken, dark creamish brown spots having reddish brown margin were noticed on both surfaces of the leaves. The causal organism was consistently isolated from symptomatic leaves on potato dextrose agar media (PDA). A total 59 isolates of fungi were recovered from diseased A. vera leaves, and 37 isolates were identified as belonging to the genus Fusarium. On the basis of morphological characteristics and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA amplified using the primers ITS4/ITS5 the pathogen was identified as Fusarium proliferatum (Matsushima) Nirenberg and pathogenicity of the isolate was confirmed by using Koch’s postulates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of leaf spot disease caused by Fusarium proliferatum on A. vera plants in India.

A compendium of Indian smut fungi with respect to their diversity and distribution is provided in this paper. After compiling all the information available in online and offline resources, it was revealed that Indian smut fungi comprise 18 genera and 159 species belonging to five families. About 189 host plant species belonging to eight families are reportedly infected by smut fungi, Poaceae being the most infected. Similarly, Ustilago was reported with highest number of species (48) from India that accounts for 30.38 % of total number of species. Ustilago was followed by Sporisorium and Anthracocystis. Other genera recorded from India are Ahmadiago, Bambusiomyces, Cintractia, Clinoconidium, Eriocaulago, Farysia, Franzpetrakia, Macalpinomyces, Melanopsichium, Melanotaenium, Moesziomyces, Pericladium, Stollia, Tolyposporium and Tranzscheliella. Inaccessibility of literature on online platforms and ceased publications of many journals are the reasons for the dispersed literature of Indian smut fungi. This causes difficulties to researchers, especially young and emerging mycologists working on, or starting taxonomic work on smut fungi. The present paper provides a complete account of diversity and distribution of Indian smut fungi in a single-source document, for the benefit of national and international students and plant pathologists working on smut fungi.

A leaf spot disease caused by Phoma eupyrena Sacc. on Aloe vera was reported from Madhya Pradesh, India. Disease symptoms were observed as irregular to elongated, sunken lesion on both leaf surfaces which later turns creamish brown with maroon margin. The fungal colonies were whitish or light pale to dark grey colour. The pycnidia were glabrous and solitary, papillate, and indistinctly uniostiolate averages 100–260 μm in diameter. Conidia were ellipsoidal, 4.5–7.5 × 2.5–3.75 μm in size, with two large guttules. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of P. eupyrena causing leaf spot disease on A. vera in India.

Avasthi S, GautamAK, Bhadauria R. 2015. Occurrence of leaf spot diseases on Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f. caused by Curvulariaspecies from Madhya Pradesh, India. Biodiversitas 16: 79-83. During 2010-2011, occurrence of leaf spot diseases was observed on Aloevera plants grown in various nurseries of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India. The typical disease symptoms were observed on the abaxialsurface, tips and spiny margins of leaves. Disease spots were sunken, dry, necrotic, dark maroon to dark brown in color. On the basis ofmorphological and microscopic characteristics of the fungus, two species of Curvularia i.e. Curvularia lunata and Curvularia ovoidea,were found to be associated with the leaf spot diseases. Koch’s postulate was applied to confirm the causal organisms of the diseases.According to the literature, this is the first report of leaf spot disease on A. vera caused by Curvularia lunata from Madhya Pradesh, andthe first report of Curvularia ovoidea from India.Key words: Aloe vera, Curvularia lunata, Curvularia ovoidea, leaf spot, India

Use of herbal formulations is increasing day by day. Triphala also witnessed the increase in demand due to its various therapeutic uses. This led to the availability of a number of brands in the market. Being a plant based formulation it is highly vulnerable to adulteration and contamination that can finally alter the efficacy of the product and may pose serious health risks for consumers. In this study various physicochemical and phytochemical parameters were studied to assess the quality of the marketed product. Morphological and microscopic characteristics of the Triphala powder samples showed the adulteration of powdered endocarp of the ingredients. A variation was also observed in pH and moisture values. Excluding one or two samples, ash values were found within permissible limits. Samples of all categories of manufacturers were found contaminated with various fungal species and the majority of them exceeding the permissible limit of 103 spores/g for the medicinal formulation of internal uses as set ...

This study was aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of fruits of Syzygium cumini, against the mycelial growth of Alternaria alternata and Fusarium oxysporum. The results showed that ethanolic extract at the concentrations of 7.5 and 9 mg/ml completely inhibited the mycelial growth of A. alternata and F. oxysporum, respectively. While the aqueous extract at a highest tested concentration (37.5 mg/ml) exhibited only 27.86 and 37.23% inhibition of mycelial growth of A. alternata and F. oxysporum, respectively. The spore germination assay also showed the complete inhibition of spore germination of A. alternata and F. oxysporum by ethanolic extract at 50 and 60 mg/ml concentrations, respectively. Minimum inhibitory concentration was recorded as 0.039 and 0.156 mg/ml in ethanolic extract and 20 and 6.25 mg/ml in aqueous extract against A. alternata and F. oxysporum, respectively. Phytochemical analysis also showed the presence of high amount of phenolics, tannins, flavonoids...

Sixty samples, categorized on the basis of manufacturers, were analyzed during the study. A total of 16 fungal species, belonging to 7 different genera, were isolated from the collected samples. Aspergillus was recorded as the most dominant genus with 9 species, namely, A. niger, A. carbonarius, A. luchuensis, A. fumigatus, A. flavus, A. nidulans, A. terreus, A. ochraceous, and A. wentii. A. niger was the most predominant species with frequency of occurrence of 63.33%. A large variation in fungal load and diversity was observed among the samples of different manufacturing categories. The percent moisture content and pH of samples were directly related to the extent of contamination. Samples with low pH and high moisture content were more contaminated. The higher incidence of A. niger (74.36%) was observed among the triphala powder of all manufacturing categories. Detection of ochratoxin producing fungi in triphala powder may pose a serious risk of ochratoxin production. Thus, there is an urgent need to enforce quality standards and regulation to minimize the fungal contamination to the globally expectable limit.

Leaf spot disease of A. vera was observed in nurseries of Gwalior city afterthe post-rainy season. As the disease progressed, the tip of the leaf shrank, then dried and eventually broke. The causal agent was identified as Phoma betae A.B. Frank. This is the first report of leaf spot disease on Aloe vera caused by P. betae in India.

Evaluation of thirty one core collections of Ocimum sanctum L. synonyms O. tenuiflorum L. collected from different ecological regions representing contrasting environment of India was carried out. All the collections were grown under sub-tropical region of Jammu, India. Study revealed wide range of variability in quantitive and qualitative attributes of oil. Essential oil content ranged between 0.16% ± 0.01% - 0.55% ± 0.08% showing the presence of fifteen constituents. Methyl eugenol (1.54% - 93.16%) and Eugenol (0.06% - 70.41%), were the major constituent. The other major constituent of the oil was β-Caryophyllene (4.60% - 33.77%) which was detected in almost all the collections. Borneol, Copane, α Caryophyllene were other constituents detected in almost all the accessions. α selinene was detected in traces in only three accessions (OS-01, OS-03, OS-50) and β-selinene was detected in four accessions (OS-01, OS-03, OS-50, OS-72. Accession OS-70 collected from Patna, showed distinct chemical profile having β-Elemene (32.81%), β-Cary- ophyllene (16.37%), Germacrene-D (18.05%), β-Ocimene (17.69%) and Copane (5.738%). Being distinct in oil profiling, Patna collection was designated as distinct chemotype. Collections OS-50 from Gwalior from Central India and OS-59 from Rajkot Western India have been identified as methyl eugenol (93.16%) and eugenol (70.41%) rich geno- types. The data collected provided useful information with respect to composition of essential oil among core collection evaluated representing various agro-climatic zones.

Leaf spot symptoms were observed on the leaves of Boehravia diffusa L. plants from different regions of Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, India. The symptoms initially appeared as a small light-pale coloured, circular spots enlarge gradually and ultimately leading to drying of the leaves. The disease was found to be caused by a fungus. The fungus was cultured on potato dextrose agar medium and identified as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. According to the literature, this is thefirst report of anthracnose disease of B. diffusa caused by C. gloeosporioides in India.

The present study describes the antifungal potential of fruit and powdered ingredients of triphala churna, i.e. Emblica officinalis (Garetn.) (Amla), Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb. (Baheda) and Terminalia chebula (Retz.) (Harada), collected from the market of Gwalior (M.P.), India. Water extracts of all the fruits and powdered samples were tested (in vitro) for their antifungal activities by poisoned food technique against different Aspergillus species (A. flavus, A. fumigatus, A. versicolor, A. terreus and A. niger) associated with them during storage. All extracts displayed varied levels i.e. very low to very high antifungal activities on four Aspergillus species. The aqueous extracts of fresh fruits (37.96 +/- 7.59%) was observed to be most effective than dry fruits (34.95 +/- 7.59%) and powder (25.07 +/- 6.05%). Terminalia chebula (fresh and dry) extracts were found most active against the four Aspergillus species with 49.15 and 40.8% inhibition, respectively. None of the extracts were found effective against the growth of A. niger. All fruits and powdered aqueous extracts were observed to be ineffective against the A. niger. The variability in antifungal activity of aqueous extracts in the present study may be useful to study the relationship between antifungal potential of herbal drugs and prevalence of fungal contaminant during their storage.

In leprosy, lepromatous form of the disease is more severe and results from suppression of T cell response. T regulatory cells which suppress T cell response has been found in higher frequency in blood and at the site of infection in leprosy. Therefore, present study was carried out to evaluate the role of Mycobacterium leprae antigens whole cell sonicate (WCS) and especially phenolic glycolipid-1 (PGL-1), which is known for its suppressive nature, in the induction of T regulatory cells expansion in peripheral blood of leprosy patients. For this purpose peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of different category of leprosy patients and healthy controls were stimulated with M. leprae antigens in vitro and percentage of T regulatory cells was determined by flow cytometry. We found higher frequency of T regulatory cells in PBMCs of untreated borderline lepromatous/lepromatous leprosy (BL/LL) patients. Further, PBMCs of untreated BL/LL patients also showed higher percentage of T regs after stimulation with PGL-1. Antigen mediated expansion of T regulatory cells was also supported by results of Carboxy fluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) proliferation assay. None of the antigen induced T regs expansion in healthy controls, untreated tuberculoid/borderline tuberculoid (TT/BT) leprosy patients and treated leprosy patients. Therefore it is suggested that increased frequency of T regs in BL/LL patients may be due to the induction of T regs expansion mediated by PGL-1 of M. leprae and this high percentage of T regs resulted in T cell suppression in lepromatous disease.

The present study reports, for the first time, the induction of in vitro flowering in Bacopa monnieri on MS medium supplemented with 3.0 mg/l Kinetin. In vitro flowers were normal in size, shape and violet in color. Among the five growth regulators tested, Kinetin (3.0 mg/l) alone induced in vitro flowering. Out of three explants – leaf, node and internode tested, only node responded positively. When eight accessions, collected for M.P. were compared, only three accessions- BMG-5, BMG-6 and BMG-7 responded positively with maximum response in BMG-6 (20.9%) followed by BMG-7 and BMG-5. All the five nodes of BMG-6 gave positive response with greater percentage from 2nd node (21.0), while in other two accessions, only 5th (BMG-5) and 3rd (BMG-7) node showed in vitro flowering.