1723 AJCS 7(11):1723-1727 (2013) ISSN:1835-2707 Review Article Ecological status of Ganoderma and basal stem rot disease of oil palms (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Laila Naher 1 *, Umi Kalsom Yusuf 1 , Soon Guan Tan 2 , Ahmad Ismail 1 1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 2 Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia *Corresponding author address: laila_islam@yahoo.com Abstract The bracket fungus, Ganoderma boninense Pat., causes basal stem rot (BSR) disease in oil palm plants. Previously the disease was reported only in older age palms and currently found on young stages palms as well. Therefore, Ganoderma can infect all stages of oil palm plants. Disease symptoms only appear at the late stage of the disease and usually called a silent killer of oil palm. Progression of the disease is slow; however, it can destroy thousands of hectares of oil palm plantations. Basal stem rot shortens the productive life of oil palms and causes serious economic losses to the oil palm industry. Hence, BSR is considered a serious threat to the oil palm industry in South East Asian countries. To date, there is high demand for sustainable detection and control of this disease. This review paper is elaborated on the detection and ecological impact of Ganoderma and BSR disease in oil palms plantation. Keywords: Basal stem rot disease, diagnostic, Ecological impact, Ganoderma, oil palm. Introduction Elaeis guineensis Jacquin, which is originated from the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa is known as the African oil palm. It was first introduced to Brazil and other tropical countries in the 15 th century by the Portuguese (Corley, 1976). In the 18 th century, the Dutch brought oil palm seeds from Africa to Indonesia. In 1878, the oil palm was introduced as an ornamental plant to Malaya, and the first commercial planting occurred in 1917 in Malaya (Williams and Hsu, 1970). The oil palm fruit is a drupe. The pericarp consists of three layers: the exocarp (skin), mesocarp (outer pulp containing palm oil), and the endocarp (a hard shell enclosing the kernel or endosperm, which contains oil known as kernel oil). Currently, palm oil is the world largest edible oil. In 2009, around 33% of total edible oil is obtained from palm oil, while 28% is from soybean (www.cmegroup.com). Besides, the palm oil is also used for biofuels and some manufactured products. However, one major problem in oil palm is basal stem rot (BSR) disease, caused by Ganoderma boninense Pat., which is a serious threat to the oil palm industry in South East Asian countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia. The disease is lethal and in the past few decades has been spreading rapidly. The disease spreads through root to root contact. During planting any little piece of rotting trunk is removed as this could be a potential source of G. boninense in the current stand (Hasan and Turner, 1998). The disease progresses slowly, but eventually all infected plants become dead. This is because the disease cannot be detected at the early stages, and when the disease symptoms do appear more than 50% of internal tissues are already rotten (Kandan et al., 2010). There are various methods applied to control BSR disease, including culture practices, good land preparation, fungicide treatment, biological control and the use of genetic resistance. The uses of resistant cultivars are becoming important management strategy for BSR control in oil palm (Idris et al., 2004; Breton et al., 2006; Flood et al., 2010). This review paper demonstrates the BSR disease and detection, and ecological impact of the causal organism of Ganoderma in oil palm plantation. Ganoderma spp. The genus Ganoderma belongs to the family of Ganodermataceae, which causes white rots of hardwoods in many woody plants by decomposing lignin as well as cellulose and related polysaccharides (Hepting, 1971). Ganoderma sp. is an economically important plant pathogen especially in oil palm, causing basal stem rot disease. The distributions of Ganoderma species are worldwide in green ecosystem both to tropical and temperate regions (Pilotti, 2005). The causal pathogen was originally identified as Ganoderma lucidum Karst in West Africa (Wakefield, 1920). In Malaysia, this causal pathogen was first recognised as G. lucidum by Thompson (1931) (Arrifin et al., 2000). The species Ganoderma has a wide host range, where more than 44 species from 34 genera of plants have been identified as potential hosts (Venkatarayan, 1936). This includes the coconut and oil palms as the main hosts for BSR (Hasan and