African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (2), pp. 175-180, 16 January 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

A laboratory experiment was conducted to study the effect of selected fungicides, tridemorph and captan, at concentrations ranging from 0 to10 kg ha^-1 on the activity of invertase and cellulase in a vertisol. The activities of invertase and cellulase were significantly more at tridemorph and captan levels of 2.5 and 5.0 kg ha^-1, respectively. But at higher concentrations of 7.5 and 10 kg ha^-1respectively, tridemorph and captan were toxic to both cellulase and invertase activities. In soil samples receiving 2.5-5.0 kg ha^-1 of the fungcides, the accumulation of reducing sugar was pronounced more at 20 days, and the activity of the invertase and cellulase was drastically decreased with increasing period of incubation up to 30 and 40 days.

Key words: Fungicides, invertase, cellulase, groundnut, Arachis hypogaea.