Control of tomato late blight with artemisia absinthium extracts

• Published in: Acta horticulturae no. 1041; pp. 227 - 230
• Main Authors: Rodino, S, Cornea, C. P, Butu, A, Butu, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Society for Horticultural Science 01.01.2014
• Subjects: antifungal properties; Artemisia absinthium; cold; ethanol; fungi; horticultural crops; in vitro studies; maceration; mycelium; organic production; Phytophthora infestans; plant pathogens; production technology; technology transfer; tomatoes; Romania
• ISSN: 0567-7572
• DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1041.26

Late blight is one of the most severe diseases in horticultural crops worldwide, causing important economic losses. Phytophthora infestans, causal agent of late blight in potato and tomato, is a very difficult phytopathogen to manage in organic production systems. The main goal of this paper is the study of the in vitro antifungal activity of extracts prepared from samples of Artemisia absinthium collected from different geographic regions in Romania. The extracts were obtained by cold maceration in ethanol, a simple technique which allows the transfer of the technology to the field. Inhibitory effects were determined by measuring radial growth of P. infestans mycelium cultivated on PDA medium containing the selected plant extract. No significant differences in anti fungal action among the extracts originating from plants collected from various regions were detected. The results show the potential of extracts of A. absinthium for control of late blight and encourages us to further studies in this direction.