ASHS 2024 Conference

Louisiana’s hot and humid climate provides the perfect environmental conditions for the growth of fungal and bacterial plant pathogens. These fungal infections are an obstacle to the success of commercial production of Cannabis sativa in the state. Two of the most recent and significant fungal diseases are southern blight caused by Sclerotium rolfsii and stem canker caused by Botrytis cinerea. However, there is a lack of formal and professional knowledge regarding fungi that infect medicinal hemp plants, and practical and effective methods for managing the casual agents of these diseases. The objective of this study was to identify natural plant products from two native plants of Louisiana, that have been reported in the Native American ethnobotanical literature to have antifungal/antibacterial properties. An in-vitro bioassay experiment was conducted using the agar plug diffusion method testing the antifungal inhibition of crude ethanol extracts from the two species against each of the two pathogens Sclerotium rolfsii and Botrytis cinerea, on four plates each of Extract 1 Diospyros virginiana L. and Extract 2 Equisetum hymale L. of 1/4PDA spiked at a dose of 250ppm, 500ppm, 750ppm, and 1000ppm against a control plate of 1/4PDA for six days. Based on this initial crude extract bioassay there is a highly significant difference in the two crude extracts (p=0.000105) when tested against Botrytis cinerea. There is also a significant difference in concentration. The test against Sclerotium rolfsii did not find any significant inhibition from either of the plant extracts tested. From our findings we will continue the research study to test the antifungal potential of crude ethanol extract as well as Hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate soluble fractions of Extract 1 Diospyros virginiana. The goal of the study is to integrate the antifungal compounds and their application for the development of best practices in Cannabis production.