Short Communication

Prophylactic effect of paw-paw leaf and bitter leaf extracts on the incidence of foliar myco-pathogens of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in Ishiagu, Nigeria

S. I. Ogwulumba¹*, K. I. Ugwuoke² and C. Iloba²

¹Crop Production Programme, Federal College of Agriculture Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.

²Department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: sitwithsolo@yahoo.com.

Accepted 8 July 2008

The aqueous extracts of the leaves of paw-paw (Carica papaya) and bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) were used to investigate their prophylactic effects on the incidence of myco-pathogens of groundnut in Ishiagu, south eastern Nigeria. Two field experiments were conducted: pre-soaking of the seeds before sowing and post-germination spraying. Both experiments had significant effects (P < 0.05) on the disease incidence of the pathogens. In the pre-soaking experiment, the incidence was drastically reduced to 2.17% (for PL15–BL20 treatment combination) being the lowest disease incidence. Post-germination spraying proved efficacious on the disease incidence by reducing the disease incidence to as low as 2.20% for PL25–BL25 treatment combination. It is therefore recommended that both methods be used at the sowing and germinated stages respectively for better effective results.

Key words:  Prophylactic effect, Plant extracts, Disease incidence, Myco-pathogens.