Harnessing Acremonium zonatum (Sawada) Gams oil formulations as water hyacinth control mycoherbicides.

Chrispo Mutebi,George Opande

doi:10.36547/ae.2021.3.3.81-84

Abstract

The effect of formulating Acremonium zonatum (Saw.) Gams in corn oil, mineral oil and glycerol was determined in a glasshouse at Maseno University Botanic Garden and laboratory. The study was situated at latitude -100’ 00’’ S and longitude 340 36’ 00’’E. A. zonatum was aseptically isolated from symptomatic plants and inoculated upon healthy water hyacinth plants in a CRD experiment. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 computer software. Oil and spore density effects were statistically significant at p < 0.05. The main effect of oil yielded an effect size of 0.281 indicating that 28.1 % of the variance in disease severity was explained by the oil formulation (F(2, 28) = 5.459, p = 0.01). Spore density yielded an effect size of 0.326 indicating that 32.6% of the variance in the study was explained by spore density (F(3, 28) = 4.515, p = 0.011). The interaction effect was not significant (F(6, 28) = 0.199, p = 0.974) indicating that there was no combined effect for the kind of oil used in the formulation of the A. zonatum and the spore density. The results suggested that A. zonatum pathogenicity varies with different spore concentrations, 1x 108 spores/ml being the most potent. A. zonatum has favorable characteristics for consideration as a mycoherbicide. Corn oil as formulation material was concluded to be the best formulation material for A. zonatum.

Highlights

Water hyacinth (Eicchornia crassipes (Mart. [Sol.] Laubach) has been reported as the worst water weed in the world (Mengist and Moges, 2019)
After 10 days, disease symptoms characterized by zonate spots suggesting the presence of A. zonatum infection were noticed on the previously injured leaves on which 5mm diameter agar blocks of the pure culture had been placed
The results of this study have proved A. zonatum is pathogenic to water hyacinth

Summary

Introduction

Water hyacinth (Eicchornia crassipes (Mart. [Sol.] Laubach) has been reported as the worst water weed in the world (Mengist and Moges, 2019). [Sol.] Laubach) has been reported as the worst water weed in the world (Mengist and Moges, 2019). Fresh water lakes in the tropics have continued to experience the water hyacinth menace due to eutrophication, one of the major ecological concerns over the world in recent times (Biswajit and Kamal, 2019). Water hyacinth is reported to have a high proliferation rate (Obianuju et al, 2020). The high growth rate of water hyacinth and the high cost involved in its eradication make the existing control techniques insufficient to contain its antagonistic propagation driving empirical investigations for alternative mitigation (Obianuju et al, 2020). Oil formulations are reported to improve efficacy of biopathogens (Karim et al, 2011; Berestetskiy and Sokornova, 2018). Forms of water hyacinth control with the use of bioherbicides should be encouraged so as to preserve environmental quality and human health (Bordin et al, 2020). Obianuju et al (2020) have observed that the fundamental relationship between viability and implementation of any mitigation strategy is on the hypothesis that stakeholders will be keen to adopt a technique if it offers higher profits or efficacy than the current mitigation measures

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