Utilizing Gardenia leaves extracts to control <i>Fusarium solani </i>and <i>Rhizoctonia solani</i> <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>

Vigna angularis (red bean), an important legume crop in Iraq and many Asian countries, suffers major yield losses due to fungal pathogens causing root rot, wilting, and damping-off diseases. The impact of Gardenia jasminoides leaf aqueous and alcoholic extracts was investigated in this study against the fungi that cause damping off of Adzuki beans, namely Fusarium solani and Rhizoctonia solani, using concentrations of 10, 15, 20, and 25 mg/ml. In vitro study indicated that the alcoholic extract successfully inhibited both fungi by 100% at a concentration of 25 mg/ml and by 85.67% at a concentration of 20 mg/ml against R. solani. The aqueous extract exhibited significant activity against F. solani, with inhibition reaching 88.9% and 78.91% at concentrations of 25 and 20 mg/mL, respectively. The in vivo greenhouse experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of alcoholic and aqueous extracts, as well as leaf powder, in reducing the severity of disease caused by R. solani. The disease severity was 1.17, and it decreased to 0.47, 0.49, and 0.65 when the seeds were treated with leaf powder, aqueous extract, and alcoholic extract, respectively. Additionally, the leaf powder demonstrated significant efficacy in treating the soil with both fungi, as disease severity decreased from 0.87 to 0.38. The phytochemical screening of aqueous extracts of G. jasminoides showed bioactive compounds such as terpenoids, tannins, saponins, and glycosides.The leaf powder also showed a clear superiority over the alcoholic and aqueous extracts when estimating the activity of the antioxidant enzyme catalase (CAT).