DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2016.v04i11.010

Pages: 1032-1037

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merril) is a most important oil crop. Soybean is frequently infected by plant pathogenic fungi belong to Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Sclerotium,Collectotrichum,Alternaria and Macrophomina sp. The present research is concerned with the fungicidal properties of metal nanoparticles used as an agent for antifungal treatment of these plant pathogenic fungi. We used Zinc (ZnNPs) and Manganese (MnNPs) nanoparticles at concentrations of 25, 50, 75 and 100 ppm. Six different Soybean plant pathogenic fungi viz., Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium oxysporum, Sclerotium rolfsii, Collectotrichum truncatum, Alternaria alternate and Macrophomina phaseolina were used as test pathogens and treated with both the nanoparticles in potato dextrose agar (PDA) by food poisoning technique. We calculated fungal inhibition in order to evaluate the antifungal efficacy of Zinc and Manganese nanoparticles against fungal pathogens. The results indicated that both nanoparticles possess antifungal properties against these plant pathogens at various levels. Treatment with 100 ppm concentration of both nanoparticles resulted in maximum inhibition of most fungi. Results also showed that the inhibition of plant pathogenic fungi was increased with increased in concentration of metal nanoparticles. In summary, ZnNPs and MnNPs exerted potent antifungal effects on test fungi in vitro. Thus, it can be effectively used against plant phytopathogenic fungi to protect the various crop plants and their products, instead of using the commercially available synthetic fungicides, which show higher toxicity to humans.