Control of Post-Harvest Bacterial Soft Rot of Potato Using Aqueous Fruit Extract of Christmas Melon (Laganaria breviflorus)

Managing the post-harvest bacterial soft rot of potato with chemicals can lead to severe health issues. During this study, an attempt was made to use aqueous Christmas melon (Laganaria breviflorus) fruit extract to control bacteria soft rot of potato. The experiment was carried out in the Pathology Laboratory of the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin-kowa, Gombe, Nigeria in 2022, and laid in a Completely Randomized Design with four replications. The treatments used were the different concentrations of the aqueous Christmas melon fruit extract comprising (stock solution), (80% concentrated CMFE), (60% concentrated CMFE), (40% concentrated CMFE), (20% concentrated CMFE) and Control (pathogen only without treatment). The bacterium was isolated from infected potato tuber and was plated on Nutrient Agar (NA). Pathogenicity test was carried out to confirm the pathogen before the In-vivo study. Peeled fruits of L. breviflorus were fermented for seven days in distilled water. The inoculated tubers were treated with aqueous Christmas melon fruit extract and incubated for six days at 27°C. Graphpad Prism version 9 software package was used for the analysis. The results revealed that L. breviflorus aqueous fruit extracts did not protect the potato tuber against bacteria soft rot, and therefore cannot serve as substitute for synthetic pesticide in controlling bacteria soft rot of potato caused by Pectobacterium carotovora ssp carotovora. Further study is recommended to be carried out using organic solvents such as n-hexane, methanol, etc to extract the botanical pesticide from Christmas melon fruit as there might be possibility of getting a positive result.