In different parts of the world, attention is being paid to exploitation of higher plants as biodegradable fungicides in the control of most plant pathogenic fungi. Different spices of the
Zingiberaceae family have been tested for their antifungal properties, but there exists little or no information on the antifungal potential of a particular member of that family;
Aframomum Sceptrum
on fungal pathogens of some economic important palms in Nigeria. In this study, the phytochemical composition of the seed extracts of this spice was analyzed by standard methods while the antifungal activities of polar and non polar extracts of the spice was tested on two major isolates affecting the Oil palm,
Fusarium oxysporum
f.sp elaeidis and Hypocrea lixii
(IMI 501885) Cold extraction using Acetone, Ethanol, Hexane, Methanol, and Diethylether solvents were used in the seed extract preparation. The broad spectrum fungicide, Mancozeb (80% wettable powder) was used as the positive control while the negative control was Dimethyl sulphoxide. The Dimethyl sulphoxide was also used to reconstitute the solvent extracts by dissolving the extracts and fungicides in appropriate amount of 15% (v/v) to obtain a concentration of 0.0624g/ml. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of the following phytochemicals in different quantities; Alkaloids, Terpenoids, Anthraquinones, Flavonoids Tanins, Saponins. Results obtained showed that all the extracts had a significantly higher antifungal effect (p< 0.05) than the broad spectrum fungicide, Mancozeb at 2000ppm. Non polar hexane seed extract had the highest percentage inhibition of 60.26% on
Hypocrea lixii (IMI 501885 while the Polar ethanolic extracts with a percentage inhibition of 52.73 % on
Fusarium f.sp elaeidis. Amongst all the extracts used in this study, the seed extracts that gave a low percentage inhibition of 42.45% was the non –polar acetone seed extract on
Fusarium oxysporum fsp. elaeidis and methanol extract on
H .lixii with the least percentage inhibition of 42.31%. The implications of these findings are discussed.
