Abstract
Among different diseases of potatoes, black scurf is the oldest and common disease of stems and stolons, below the soil surface caused by Rhizoctonia solani. The present study was carried out to investigate the antifungal potential of Toona ciliata M. Roem. extracts against this soil-borne fungal pathogen. Different concentrations (1, 2, 3, 4, 5%) of aqueous, methanol, n-hexane and chloroform extracts of leaves, stems and fruits of T. ciliata were evaluated for their in vitro antifungal activity. All the extracts showed variable antifungal activity. In general, stem bark and leaf extracts exhibited the highest inhibitory effect against growth of the fungal pathogen followed by fruit. Among the various extracts, stem bark and leaf methanol extract, followed by stem-bark and leaf chloroform extract showed the best antifungal activity resulting in 0-83% and 0-60% reduction in fungal biomass over corresponding control treatments, respectively. The implications of using the T. ciliata extracts in controlling R. solani are discussed.