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Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (FOL) is a highly destructive pathogen of tomato causing wilt disease. In search of an alternative strategy to synthetic fungicides for the control of this pathogen, methanolic stem extract of a winter weed Chenopodium murale L. was investigated against this pathogen. The methanolic stem extract (1 to 5 %) significantly (P ≤ 0.05) suppressed the fungal growth by 39-74 %. This extract was partitioned using 3-organic solvents of different polarities. Bioassays with different concentrations (1.562 to 200 mg mL-1) showed the best antifungal activity was of chloroform > n-hexane > ethyl acetate sub-fraction causing 51-100 %, 52-98 % and 29-98 % reduction in biomass of FOL, respectively. GC-MS analysis of chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions showed 20 and 8 compounds, respectively. Acetic acid, butyl ester (22.72 %), cyclopentanol (20.15 %), 2-hexanol (21.36 %), oleic acid (13.92 %), morphine (12.97 %) and β-sitosterol (11.79 %) were abundant compounds in these two sub-fractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a newly introduced crop in Pakistan. We evaluated the antifungal efficacy of root extracts of 4-quinoa varieties (PI 596293, Ames 13730, Ames 13737 and PI 634919) against the most harmful soil inhabiting fungal pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. Methanolic root extracts (1 to 5 %) of these varieties reduced the fungal biomass by 33-70 %. Due to its higher antifungal activity, Ames 13737 variety was selected for further studies and fractionated with 4-organic solvents (n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol) based on their increased polarities. All concentrations of chloroform and the lowest concentration of n-butanol (1.562 mg mL-1 ) completely inhibited the pathogen growth. These fractions were further subjected to GC-MS analysis that revealed the presence of 7-antifungal phytoconstituents (decane; undecane; oleic acid; benzene, 1,2,3-trimethyl; cycloheptasiloxane, tetradecamethyl-; cyclohexasiloxane, dodecamethyl- and 9-octadecanoic acid (Z)-, methyl ester). This study concluded that chloroform and n-butanol fractions of root extract of quinoa possess strong antifungal potential against M. phaseolina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]