Use Of Methanolic Extracts Obtained Of Strawberry Leaves For The Control Of Postharvest Diseases In Lemons.

SENDÍN, L. N.; MAMANÍ, A.; FILIPPONE, P.; TORRES LEAL, G. J.; CASTAGNARO, A. P.; DÍAZ RICCI, J. C.

Agadir, Marruecos

Congreso; 10th International Citrus Congress; 2004

International Society of Citriculture

The economic losses caused for the postharvest decay represent one of the major problems of the citriculture worldwide. The control of these diseases is carried out mainly with synthetic fungicides which cause accumulation of toxic wastes and environment contamination problems. One plausible environmentally safe alternative would be the use of natural antimicrobial compounds. The objective of the present study is to utilize methanolic extracts of strawberry leaves with antifungal activity for to explore their possible application on postharvest decay of citrus. Leaves of commercial and wild species of strawberries were lyophilized, ground and homogenized in methanol 80% for 24hs. The extracts were then filtered, dried and suspended in water. In vitro assays against Pennicilium digitatum carried out with a conidial suspension (1.5x105 conidia/ml) in soft potato-dextrose-broth medium at 28ºC for 24hs, indicated that the extract from the cv. Camarosa was the most active, therefore it was used for in vivo experiments with lemons. Fruits were pretreated with hypochloride 1% and inoculated with a suspension of P. digitatum (105 conidia/ml) by puncture-wounding. After 24hs lemons were sprayed with the Camarosa extract at 10 and 20% and incubated 21 days at 25ºC and 90% RH. Lemons treated with Imazalil (0.2%) were used as the positive control. Results showed that lemons treated with the extract of Camarosa at 20% did not present disease symptoms and the extract at 10% produced a substantial decrease of the rot in comparison with the controls without treatment. These outcomes suggest that it is possible to use methanolic extracts of strawberry leaves for the postharvest decay in lemons; with the consequent economic advantage and the protection to environment.