Plant extracts have long been used in commercial agriculture as anti-microbial tools in food safety applications. These offer growers and agrobiologists many unique benefits which include their eco-friendliness. This work reviews the situation of Biofungicides reconnaissance in reference to fungal disease of cowpea. Twenty different pathogens were associated with various fungal diseases of cowpea and, only the species of Colletotrichum was found to have the virulence and propensity of afflicting a 100% infection on a single susceptible cowpea crop. Plant families under the affliction of Colletotrichum were analyzed. The different forms of botanicals so far availed for use as potential biofungicidal were identified. Eighteen plant families were found to represent the entire plants and plant materials agrobiologically screened within a range of thirteen years and found to habour large spectra of species containing substances of biofungicidal potentials. Current position in the use of Botanicals to combat agricultural pests and disease is 7% of the total cowpea disease management options.

Colletotrichum destructivum is the causal pathogen of cowpea anthracnose; botanical extracts and benlate fungicide were evaluated as Biopesticides/chemical control strategies in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L). Botanicals of four plants: Azadiractha indica, Cymbopogon citratus, Ocimum gratissimum, and Xylopia aethiopica, proved effective in reducing spore germination and colony growth in vitro and the growth of the pathogen in vivo. The extracts of X. aethiopica and A. indica more effectively reduced both the growth of the pathogen in vitro and the spread of the disease in vivo. Extracts and benlate applied both before and after pathogen inoculation of cowpea significantly reduced the size of pathogen induced lesion.