CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF RHIZOPOGON SPECIES AGAINST FUNGAL ROT OF APPLE

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (gc-ms) is one of the so-called hyphenated analytical technique. gc-ms profiling of n-hexane extract of the ecologically important mushroom rhizopogon species was investigated for first time from kashmir valley and 37 volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds were detected. among them various major bioactive compounds viz. 1-tetradecene, 2, 4-di-tert-butylphenol, cetene, 1-octadecene, n-hexadecanoic acid, 1-nonadecene, cis-vaccenic acid, behenic alcohol and n-tetracosanol are believed to be responsible for their strong antifungal activity against all the test fungal pathogens. therefore, different concentrations of n-hexane extract of rhizopogon species were evaluated for their antifungal activity against fungi such as penicillium chrysogenum, aspergillus niger and alternaria alternata causing postharvest disease of apple. it was revealed from the present investigation that all the concentrations exhibited significant antimycotic activity against all the test fungal pathogens. however, maximum spore germination inhibition was observed in penicillium chrysogenum (87.80%) followed by aspergillus niger (71.08%) and alternaria alternata (55.10%) respectively, at highest concentrations (200 mg/ml) of rhizopogan species extract. similarly, the maximum zone of inhibition was shown in penicillium chrysogenum (27.00 ± 1.00) followed by aspergillus niger (22.67 ± 2.08) and alternaria alternata (18.57 ± 1.52) respectively, at highest concentrations (200 mg/ml). other concentrations (100 mg/ml and 150 mg/ml) of n-hexane extract also caused spore germination inhibition and zone of inhibition of the test fungi but to a lesser extent.