~ 997 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2017; 6(4): 997-1002 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2017; 6(4): 997-1002 Received: 22-05-2017 Accepted: 23-06-2017 Debjani Choudhury Department of Plant Protection, Palli Siksha Bhavana,Visva Bharati, Nadia, West Bengal, India Soumen Saha Department of chemistry, Kalyani University, Nadia, West Bengal, India Ranjan Nath Department of Plant Protection, Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Nadia, West Bengal, India Ramen Kumar Kole Department of Agricultural Chemicals, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Nadia, West Bengal, India Jayanta Saha Department of Plant Pathology, Nadia, West Bengal, India Correspondence Debjani Choudhury Department of Plant Protection, Palli Siksha Bhavana, Visva Bharati, Nadia, West Bengal, India Management of chilli anthracnose by botanicals fungicides caused by Colletotrichum capsici Debjani Choudhury, Soumen Saha, Ranjan Nath, Ramen Kumar Kole and Jayanta Saha Abstract Chloroform extract of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.) rhizome, Clerodendrum (Clerodendrum infortunatum L.) mature leaf and methanol extract of Polyalthia (Polyalthia longifolia) mature leaf were tested against C. capsici radial growth, biomass production and spore germination on following poisoned food technique at 20, 100, 200 and 400 µg/ml and carbendazim at 1, 5, 10, 20µg/ml was taken as standard fungicide control. The effective concentration of plant extracts and fungicide carbendazim were also tested in vivo and field condition following artificial inoculation by pin-prick method of fully matured fruits about to ripe harvested chilli fruits. The extracts formulated with solvent and surfactant (20EC) were sprayed on harvested fruits both before inoulation and after inoculation and incubated in moist chanmer at 28±1 °C. Under field condition the botanical formulations were sprayed on chilli plnts bearing mature fruits both naturally and artificial inoculated conditions at 400µg/ml.All the plant extract formulations showed inhibition of radial growth, biomass production and spore germination with increased dose relationship. However, the fungicide carbendazim showed highest activity than the botanical formulations at lower doses. Under In vitro highest radial growth inhibition (57.78%) and spore germination inhibition (62.70%) at 400µg/ml was observed in polyalthia-methanol and highest inhibition of biomass production was observed in ginger-chloroform (32.78%). Under in vivo condition, all the treatments showed reduced lesion diameter but Clerodendrum-chloroform showed less lesion diameter compared to other treatments while in field condition both in natural infection and artificial infection, clerodendrum-chloroform showed less percent infected fruits in clerodendrum-chloroform followed by ginger-chloroform and polyalthia-methanol. Based on the results, the plant extract of Clerodendrum infortunatum could be developed and used as an effective alternative to synthetyic chemicals for post- harvest anthracnose of chilli both under field and post-harvest condition. Keywords: Plant extracts, Antifungal activity, Chilli, Anthracnose, Colletotrichum capsici, Post-harvest 1. Introduction Chilli (Capsicum annum), an important spice crop in the world and India is one of the leading producers and exporters of chilli in the world. Anthracnose of chilli or fruit rot disease causes the major share of crop loss (Saxena, 2016) [2] in the field as well as in the storage and transport. The causal fungus, Colletotrichum capsici (Syd. & P.Syd.) is hemibiotrophic in nature. The pathogen may initiate the infection in the green fruit but remain quiescent till ripening of fruits. During ripening the lesion starts to develop very fast and may cause total ripe fruit decay in the field and during post-harvest stages of storage and transport. High moisture content, nutrient composition and pH of the ripe fruits support the growth of the fungus. Synthetic fungicides are generally recommended and used to control the disease in the field. However, the use synthetic fungicides at ripening stage or on harvested fruits has a greater likelihood of direct environment food chain contamination; Unnikrishnan and Nath, 2002) [27] ; Zahida and Masud, 2002 [30] ; off-odour effects and development of resistance (Fogliata et al., 2001). These ill-effects of synthetic fungicides prompted to develop safe alternative strategies for reducing losses due to ripe and postharvest decay (Nashwa 2012) [23] . Therefore an attempt to modify this condition, an integrated management practice and use of natural products leading to organic production of chilli may guarantee as effective, economic and environment friendly (Kashyap et.al. 2010; Mondal and Mondal 2012; Kabir et.al. 2014) [15, 18, 14] . In our laboratory Bhutia et.al. (2015) [32] reported the use of plant extracts for effective management of anthracnose of Banana caused by Colletotrichum musae while Rupert et.al. (2016) [33] reported the use of plant extracts for management of black rot of Cabbage caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv campestris. The objective of the present research work is to study the effect of some common and widely