Abstract
Many Fusarium species are pathogenic, causing crop diseases during crop production and spoilage of agricultural products in both commercial and smallholder farming. Fusarium attack often results into food contamination, yield loss and increases in food insecurity and food prices. Synthetic fungicides have been used as a control strategy for the management of crop diseases caused by Fusarium pathogens. The negative effects associated with application of many synthetic pesticides has necessitated the need to search for alternative control strategies that are affordable and environmentally safe. Research on medicinal plants as control agents for Fusarium pathogens has received attention since plants are readily available and they contain wide variety of secondary metabolites that are biodegradable. The activities of solvent extracts, essential oils and compounds from medicinal plants have been tested against Fusarium phytopathogenic species. A summary of recent information on antifungal activity of plants against Fusarium species is valuable for the development of biopesticides. This paper reviews the antifungal research conducted on medicinal plants against Fusarium pathogens, over a 10-year period, from January 2012 to May 2021. We also highlight the challenges and opportunities of using natural products from medicinal plants in crop protection. Several databases (Science Direct and Web of Science) were used to obtain information on botanical products used to control Fusarium diseases on crops. Keywords search used included natural products, antifungal, Fusarium, crops diseases, phytopathogenic, natural compounds and essential oil.
Highlights
The genus Fusarium is among the largest fungal genera consisting of pathogenic and non-pathogenic species [1]
This review provides an overview of current research activities from 2012, as well as the challenges and prospects of developing natural products from medicinal plants as a source of biopesticides to control phytopathogenic Fusarium species against the backdrop of using synthetic chemicals
We review some studies conducted in the past 10 years on antifungal activity of plant extracts, essential oils and compounds isolated from plants against phytopathogenic
Summary
The genus Fusarium is among the largest fungal genera consisting of pathogenic and non-pathogenic species [1]. F. verticillioides are known to infect cereal crops, fruits and vegetables (Table 1) They cause diseases that include head or seed blights, vascular wilts, pokkah boeng, bakanae, panama disease, stem, ear, crown and root rots [9,10,11,12,13,14]. The economic damage caused by Fusarium species is through their direct attack of crops in the fields and by the production of allergenic compounds and mycotoxins, which contaminate commodities during post-harvest storage. They produce fungal secondary metabolites such as deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, diacetoxyscirpenol, zearalenone, fusaric acid and fumonisins, all of which are harmful to humans and livestock [19,20,21,22,23]. Stem rot, stem rot, dry rot Fusarium head blight pitch canker, dry rot stalk rot root rot disease, Fusarium head blight ear and stalk rot [54]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
