Allelopathic interactions of Carthamus oxyacantha, Macrophomina phaseolina and maize: Implications for the use of Carthamus oxyacantha as a natural disease management strategy in maize

Fungicides are used to control phytopathogens but all these fungicides have deleterious effects. Allelopathic interactions can be harnessed as a natural way to control the pathogens but there are no reports that show the allelopathic interactions of donor plant, recipient crop, as well as the target plant pathogen and the material used for inoculum production. So, in the present study, the suitability of Carthamus oxyacantha M. Bieb. was assessed against Macrophomina phaseolina, the cause of charcoal rot in maize. Among the various treatments in pot experiment, a negative control, 3 concentrations of inoculum (1.2×105, 2.4×105, and 3.6×105 colony forming units (CFU) mL-1, 3 concentrations (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% w/w) of C. oxyacantha along with an autoclaved M. phaseolina (Mp) and C. oxyacantha alone were included to investigate their allelopathic effects on maize, not investigated earlier. Maximum suppression of the disease was observed by 1.5% (w/w) concentration of C. oxyacantha. Soil amendment with C. oxyacantha significantly suppressed the disease incidence (DI) and disease severity index (DSI) in charcoal rot of maize up to 40 and 55%, respectively over the strongest level of inoculum (Mp3). C. oxyacantha not only reduced area under disease incidence progress curve (AUDIPC) and area under disease severity progress curve (AUDSPC), but also improved the morphological, biochemical and physiological parameters of maize. The maximum increase of 48, 65, and 75% in values of shoot length (SL), shoot dry mass (SDM), and root dry mass (RDM), respectively was observed by application of the highest concentration of C. oxyacantha in the treatment Mp1+Co3, over infested control (Mp1). Photosynthetic pigments, such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids were increased to 58, 64, and 46%, respectively over Mp1, by the application of C. oxyacantha. Carbon assimilation rate (A), stomatal conductance (gs), rate of transpiration (E), and internal carbon dioxide concentration (Ci) were significantly increased to 58, 48, 48, and 20%, respectively over infested control (Mp3), by application of C. oxyacantha concentration 1.5 (w/w). Moreover, defense enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activities were boosted up to 27, 28, and 28% over Mp3, respectively. Positive allelopathy of C. oxyacantha towards maize and negative allelopathy towards M. phaseolina makes C. oxyacantha a suitable candidate for charcoal rot disease control in maize.