ANTAGONISTIC EFFECT OF DIFFERENT MEDICINAL PLANT EXTRACTS ON LARVAL MORTALITY AND EGG HATCHING OF MELOIDOGYNE GRAMINICOLA Anupam Kumar 1 *, Kamal Khilari 1 , Gopal Singh 1 , Ramesh Singh 1 , D. V. Singh 2 , M. K. Yadav 3 and Abhishek Kumar 1 1 Department of Plant Pathology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut - 250 110, India. 2 Department of Entomology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut - 250 110, India. 3 Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut-250 110, India. *e-mail : anupamkumar9616@gmail.com (Received 25 November 2021, Revised 20 December 2021, Accepted 01 January 2022) ABSTRACT : An experiment was conducted to test the efficacy of nine medicinal plant extracts at two concentrations viz., 2% and 4% against larval motility and egg hatching of Meloidogyne graminicola causing root-knot disease in rice under in vitro condition. The plant extracts viz., Bhang (Cannabis spp.), Guldaudi (Chrysanthemum spp.), Malabar nut (Justicia adhatoda), Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Kaner (Nerium oleander), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Bhringraj (Eclipta prostrate), Peach (Prunus persica) and Parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) tested in this study. All the tested plant extracts increased the larval mortality and reduced the egg hatching of M. graminicola. Among the tested plant extracts maximum larval mortality (11.65%) was recorded in Bhringraj (E. prostrate) and minimum (70.00%) egg hatching in Neem (A. indica) at 2% concentration after 72 hr of inoculation. While, at 4% concentration maximum larval mortality (48.35 %) and minimum egg hatching (53.35%) was recorded in Neem (A. indica) leaf extract after 72 hr of inoculation. Key words : Egg hatching, larval mortality, Meloidogyne graminicola, plant extracts. How to cite : Anupam Kumar, Kamal Khilari, Gopal Singh, Ramesh Singh, D. V. Singh, M. K. Yadav and Abhishek Kumar (2022) Antagonistic effect of different medicinal plant extracts on larval mortality and egg hatching of Meloidogyne graminicola. J. Exp. Zool. India 25, 313-318. DocID: https://connectjournals.com/03895.2022.25.313 J. Exp. Zool. India Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 313-318, 2022 www.connectjournals.com/jez ISSN 0972-0030 DocID: https://connectjournals.com/03895.2022.25.313 eISSN 0976-1780 INTRODUCTION Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important cereal crop worldwide since it provides food security for more than half of the world’s human population. More than 3 billion Asians eat rice, which provides 30-75% calories (Khush, 2004; von Braun and Bos, 2004). In terms of harvested area, India is the second world’s largest rice producer. While some of it is exported, these figures were set to satisfy the demand, which amounted to around 1.3 billion people. There have been reports of around 321.79 lakh ha of coverage under rice. As such, the area occupied by 47.60 lakh ha is more than last year (274.19 lakh ha). The higher area is reported from the states of Telangana (11.78 lakh ha), Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha (Anonymous, 2020). West Bengal is India’s top rice producer. The inferred rice production in 2020-2021 is 118 million metric tons from 44 million hectares with a trend yield of 4.02 million tons/hectare (Singh and Beillard, 2021). Rice demand is expected to reach 904 million tons worldwide by 2030 and 824 million tons in Asia, to meet the food and nutritional needs of densely populated and rice-dominant regions. At a 3 million tons annual increase in current rice production, India alone would need around 156 million tons of rice by 2030 (Dass et al, 2016). Severe yield losses can occur in this economically important crop as a result of infestation by nematodes. Nematodes are present in soils and freshwater and can reach high population densities. Among nematode species associated with rice, rice root-knot nematode is the most important pathogen. Meloidogyne species is one of the most damaging plant pests viz ., Meloidogyne graminicola, M. oryzae, M. javanica and M. arenaria (Gaur and Pankaj, 2010). Meloidogyne graminicola is a primary pest of rice and poses a substantial threat to