International Journal of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology Research
ISSN: 2053-1818
Vol. 7(5), pp. 55-69, June, 2019
doi.org/10.33500/ijambr.2019.07.008

Essential oils as control agents against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici in Lycopersicon esculentum used under in vitro and in vivo conditions

SIMO Claude^1,4*, SUH Christopher², MBAMBA BESSONG Alain Vianey¹, NYOBE NKEN Brice Gatien¹,
LANGSI DOBGANGHA Jacob⁵, DJOCGOUE Pierre François^3,4 and TAFFOUO Victor Desire¹

¹Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Douala P. O. Box 24157, Douala, Cameroon.
²Research Institute for Agricultural Development, P. O. Box: 2123, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
³Department of Plant Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé, P. O. Box 812 Yaoundé, Cameroon.
⁴Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Department of Biological Sciences, Higher Teacher’s Training College, P. O. Box 47, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
⁵Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Ngaoundere, P. O. Box: 454 Ngaoundere, Cameroon.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: simoclaude@yahoo.fr.

Received 13 April, 2019; Received in revised form 10 May, 2019; Accepted 14 May, 2019.

Keywords:
Lycopersicon esculentum, Fusarium wilt, Essential oils, Antifungal activity.

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is one of the world's cash crops particularly in Cameroon. However, in Cameroon, yield declines are caused by the attack of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. In this study, four essential oil extracts including Cupressus sempervirens, Chenopodium ambrosioides, Azadirachta indica and Capsicum annuum leaves were evaluated for their supression ability on this pathogen, under in vitro and in vivo conditions. In vitro tests of the antifungal activity of essential oils at different concentrations showed inhibition effects on the growth of F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici in different rates. The essential oils of C. sempervirens and C. ambrosioides were the most effective at the concentration of 20 μL/mL whereas A. indica was also effective only at the concentration of 100 μL/mL. The most in vitro effective essential oils (C. sempervirens, C. ambrosioides and A. indica oil) were then included in an in vivo assay to evaluate their suppression activities on the pathogen growth on tomato seedlings. The esseantial oils were applied to tomato seedlings as two groups; i) preventively; ii) curatively. The preventively treated plants showed an influence of the essential oils on the slowing of the development of disease with a rate of reduced desease leaves and the stem growth, in comparison to the control plants. In the curatively treated group of plants, there was almost an ineffective action of essential oils on both stem growth and disease progression. Consequently, the essential oil obtained from C. ambrosioides was most effective in vivo at a low concentration (20 μL/mL) against F. oxysporum. f. sp. lycopersici.

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