Effectiveness of GRAS substances for managing leaf diseases in brinjal (<em>Solanum melongena</em> L)

Abstract

Leaf diseases in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) are common and drastically lower its yield. As synthetic fungicides are hazardous to the environment and human health, non-fungicidal approaches to foliar disease control are being adopted progressively. The current investigation assessed the effectiveness of Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) substances in the management of leaf diseases in brinjal. The efficacy of the selected GRAS substances, including 400 μM of salicylic acid, 0.1% of sodium bicarbonate, and botanical extracts such as 200 ppm of garlic clove extract, 200 ppm of neem extract and 200 ppm of eucalyptus extract, were assessed. Six treatments and four replicates were employed in a completely randomized design for this present study. The natural occurrence of leaf diseases was taken into account in the experiment. Disease incidence (%), disease severity (%), number of leaves per plant, plant height (cm) and number of branches per plant were recorded seven weeks after transplanting. Analysis of variance was used to assess the significance of treatment effects. The findings confirmed that the exogenous spraying of salicylic acid and garlic clove extract significantly (P<0.05) decreased the disease severity and incidence, with statistically equivalent efficiency for both substances. Moreover, number of branches per brinjal plant (3.3), plant height (51.4 cm) and number of leaves per brinjal plant (31.5) were significantly (P<0.05) enhanced by salicylic acid compared to control. Hence, spraying garlic clove extract and salicylic acid may therefore be an environmentally potential means of managing brinjal leaf diseases during the vegetative growth stage.