Moringa oleifera Extraction as Alternative Option for Controlling Citrus Post-harvest Green and Blue Molds In vetro

Abstract

The post-harvest green and blue molds caused by Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum, respectively are considered universal diseases that lead to the spoilage of almost all kinds of mature citrus fruits, and cause significant losses in citrus fruits during storage and in the markets greater than what people believes. Several natural products were used to control plant pathogens as alternative of fungicides. Moringa oleifera as a natural product was used to treat several plant pathogens. Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum, were isolated from mature spoiled orange (Citrus sinensis L.) and lemon (Citrus limon L.) fruits obtained from the local market of Haqle-Saudi Arabia and identified using morphological and physiological characteristics according to the key of Visagie, in addition to molecular methods based on ITS1 sequence analysis. The fungicidal activity of Moringa oleifera extract with different concentrations in controlling the growth of the isolates of Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum was determined in vitro. The control activity was highly dependent on Moringa oleifera extract concentration. For instance, undiluted Moringa oleifera extract showed the highest control activity with no growth as compared to the biotic control without treatment. Diluted Moringa oleifera extract 25% and 10% reduced the fungal growth to 46.54 and 29.88%, respectively, for Penicillium digitatum and 45.83 and 27.46%, respectively, for Penicillium italicum. The results of the recent study show that Moringa oleifera extract could successfully control Penicillium digitatum and Penicillium italicum, the disease agents of green and blue molds as an environmentally friendly product.