Abstract
Phytochemical screening of Alhagi maurorum, Calotropis procera and Datura innoxia extracts revealed the presence of carbohydrates and/or glycosides, tannins, flavonoids, steroids and/or triterpenes. Moreover, anthraquinones were detected in A. maurorum and C. procera whereas alkaloids were detected in D. innoxia only. When ethyl alcohol extract prepared from D. innoxia was further fractionated by petroleum ether and chloroform, three fractions were detected. Four triterpene's subfractions (D1-D4) were isolated from petroleum ether fraction and identified as beta-amyrin, daturadiol, daturadiol-3-acetate and daturaolone. Chloroform fraction contained alkaloids which were fractionated into 3 subfractions (D5-D7) and identified as atropine, hyoscine and hyoscyamine. Two coumarin subfactions were isolated from the remaining aqueous layer and identified as scopoletin and scopolin. All the selected plant extracts were effective in inhibiting growth, sporulation, conidial germination as well as cellulase and pectinase enzymes of Drechslera biseptata and Fusarium solani, except the remaining aquaeous layer fraction of ethanolic extract prepared from D. innoxia which exhibited stimulatory effect on spore production and nonsignificant effect on conidial germination as well as cellulase and pectinase enzymes of D. biseptata. Mostly F. solani was more susceptible to plant extracts than D. biseptata. It was evident that the antifungal activity of the plant extracts depended upon type of plant, solvent, extract concentration as well as fungal type and its phase of growth.