Effect of Different Plant Material Based Culture Media on Growth and Sporulation of Colletotrichum capsici Isolated from Chilli

Abstract

Colletotrichum capsici, causing anthracnose disease of chilli, is a severe disease of chill crops that significantly reduces the commercial output of chilli production worldwide, especially in tropical and sub-tropical countries. Medium for the growth of fungi generally uses Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media. Still, it is necessary to find materials for alternative media from organic materials that are easy to obtain and provide better results than PDA. An attempt was made to find the best-supporting medium which may provide profuse mycelium growth and sporulation of C. capsici. Here, in this experiment, ten different plant material extracts along with potatoes were used as growth media. Ten different media were tested, among them, there was no significant difference in growth of C. capsici on Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Mung Extract Agar (MuEA) media; while least growth was found on Green Chilli Extract Agar (GCEA) media. Sporulation on PDA and MuEA media also showed no significant difference among all media. On the other hand, least sporulation rate was found on Rice Extract Agar (REA) media. Moreover, the colony colour, texture, colony margin of mycelia and size of conidia were also examined. Though, all the formulated media supported the growth of fungi, the effects on the morphology of the fungi varied considerably. Therefore, Mung Extract Agar (MuEA) can be used for the culturing of C. capsici instead of Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) media as the best alternative suitable media for the growth and sporulation of C. capsici.