Variation in antifungal activity in extracts from Momordica plants

Antifungal activity in aqueous and organic extracts from Momordica charantia and Momordica balsamina were evaluated against three pathogens: Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis, Macrophomina phaseolina, and Alternaria solani. Cold-water extracts of 12 Momordica accessions exhibited various degrees of inhibition of the three pathogens: A. solani was more suppressed by the different extracts than F. oxysporum or M. phaseolina. Extracts from accessions 5 and 10 from M. balsamina were the most effective at inhibiting the tested fungi. Accession 10 exhibited the highest suppression level, more than 30% higher inhibition relative to the untreated control. Heating the cold extracts resulted in loss of antifungal activity in all cases. Hot ethanol extracts of the studied accessions exhibited a somewhat different pattern: F. oxysporum and M. phaseolina were strongly inhibited relative to A. solani. Interestingly, accession 10, which excelled in its inhibitory activity in the cold-water extract, was not effective whe...