1 Plant Archives Vol. 20, Supplement 2, 2020 pp. 3407-3411 e-ISSN:2581-6063 (online), ISSN:0972-5210 ESTIMATION OF BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN SUGARCANE DUE TO POKKAH BOENG DISEASE Seweta Srivastava, Pavithra G and Meenakshi Rana* School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-144 411, Punjab, India *Corresponding Author: meenakshi.20557@lpu.co.in Abstract Sugarcane is an important cash crop and has been grown in India since the ancient time. It is mainly utilized to prepare sugar. Sugarcane production shows reduction due to many biotic stresses in the form of disease caused by various microbes. Although pokkah boeng is a minor disease caused by Fusarium moniliforme but recently the incidence of pokkah boeng disease have been increased and most of the sugarcane varieties got affected ranged from 1-90%. The present study aimed to observe the changes in amino-acid and protein content of sugarcane due to pokkah boeng disease. Five sugarcane varieties were taken viz. CoS 8436, CoS 8432, CoS 98259, CoLk 8102 and CoSe 01434. Data revealed that amino acid content was significantly higher in all test varieties of sugarcane in comparison to that of healthy canes. But ascorbic acid and protein content in all test varieties of sugarcane was significantly higher in healthy canes in comparison to that of diseased canes. Keywords: Fusarium moniliforme, Pokkah boeng, Sugarcane, Biochemical Estimation. Introduction Sugarcane has an old association with India. It has been grown in India since the ancient time and has its reference in the Vedic literature (500 B.C) (Sato, 2014). Chinese writers of the 8 th century have recorded that knowledge of sugarcane and its products were derived from India (Sidney, 1986). Sugarcane is also known as Ganna or Ekh in vernacular language. In general, S. officinarum is known as good cane whereas S. robustum as a wild cane. It is believed that India is the original home of sugarcane (Daniel and Daniel, 1993; Paterson et al. 2012; Kumar and Dwivedi, 2018a; Kumar et al., 2018b; Kumar et al., 2018c; Kumar and Dwivedi, 2018d; Kumar and Purnima et al., 2018e; Kumar and Pathak, 2019f; Kumar et al., 2019g; Siddique and Kumar, 2018h; Siddique et al., 2018i; Pathak et al., 2017j; Prakash and Kumar, 2017k; Kumar and Mandal, 2014L) and the indigenous Indian cane species is botanically known as Saccharum barberi Jews. These canes are thin or medium in thickness. The thicker class of canes is botanically known as Saccharum officinarum L. and known initially to grow in Mauritius, Java, Brazil and West Indies from South Pacific origin (Fauconnier, 1993). Sugarcane plays a vital role in Indian economy by providing direct and indirect employment, and due to its perennial nature and dependable remunerative crop. Globally, about 240 diseases have been recorded on sugarcane (Rott et al., 2000). However, amongst them, the major diseases are 40 fungal, 5 bacterial, 8 viral, 3 nematodes, and 8 miscellaneous diseases as per American Phytopathological Society Report. Primarily, sugarcane diseases are grouped into two categories namely, “Seed transmitted” and “Non seed transmitted”. The former group includes all viral, mycoplasmal, fungal and bacterial diseases which are responsible for heavy yield losses, varietal decline and deterioration of the seed stocks in India (Rao et al. 2002). The second group includes minor diseases like, leaf spots, blights, rust and root- rot etc. which are neither severe nor of widely occurring and have only seasonal importance in certain areas. About 10–15% of the nation sugar produced is lost due to the diseases (Viswanathan and Rao, 2011; Kumar et al., 2014m; Kumar et al., 2014n; Kumar, 2013o; Kumar and Dwivedi, 2015p; Gogia et al., 2014q; Kumar, 2014r; Kumar et al., 2012s; Mishra et al., 2012t; Kumar et al., 2011u; Kumar et al., 2011v; Kumar et al., 2016x). The economic value and distribution of all diseases occurred on the sugarcane varieties and the agro-climatic conditions under which they are grown, are defined by Alexander and Vishanathan (2011). Yield of sugarcane is hindered by diseases mostly as a result of its vegetative propagation through setts, resulting in easy dissemination of causal organism (Pierre et al. 2014). Out of all diseases of sugarcane, although Pokkah boeng comes under insignificant concern but now a days it is considered as a major disease on basis of their frequent spread since last few years (Vishwakarma et al. 2013). The identified causal organism of the mentioned disease is Fusarium moniliforme (Lin et al. 2014; Zhang and Jeyakumar, 2018). Following resistant cultivars of sugarcane have been recommended by the scientists, these are Co 0238, Co 0118, CoS 08279, CoS 8436, CoS 08272, CoS 96268, CoSe 03234, CoSe 98231, CoSe 01235 and CoSe 92423. In addition, mid-late cultivars namely CoS 96275, CoS 97261, CoSe 95422, UP 05125, CoS 98259, CoSe 01424, CoS 91230, CoS 92263, CoS 94257, and two varieties viz., UP 9530, CoSe 96436 have also been recommended for waterlogged areas. This article aimed to observe the changes in amino-acid and protein content of sugarcane due to pokkah boeng disease. Materials and Methods To understand the nutritional value, like biochemical contents in both healthy and diseased sugarcanes, various biochemical experiments were carried out in the laboratory after collecting the samples from the experimental field. Healthy and infected sugarcane samples were collected from experimental field in sterilized polythene bags and brought to laboratory for study. The equipments used in study were Conical flax, Test tube, Hemocytometer, Sugar tubes, Micropipettes, GDW, Hot plate, Spectrophotometer, Dextrose, Liquid Nitrogen and Mortar pestle etc.