Endophytic fungal enumeration from various leaf samples of a medicinal plant: Ziziphus mauritiana

Isolation and enumeration of endophytic fungi from different leaf samples viz., young, mature, dry, yellow and infected of Ziziphus mauritiana was carried out in the Microbiology laboratory, K. M. Centre for P. G. Studies (Autonomous), Pondicherry during 2011. Agar plate and moist chamber techniques were used to isolate the endophytic fungi. During the study period, a total of 16 fungi were isolated under 10 genera from both agar plate and moist chamber method of which, 13 species of 10 genera were from Agar plate and 13 species of 9 genera were from moist chamber. Incidence of endophytic fungi isolated from Ziziphus mauritiana in agar plate was less than moist chamber. It was found that, white sterile mycelia was recorded in all the leaf samples starting from young to infected of the medicinal plant Ziziphus mauritiana. In agar plate technique, Aspergilli, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Penicillium citrinum, white sterile mycelia, Curvularia lunata, gray sterile mycelia were recorded from all the leaf samples. I n moist ch amber, Fusarium oxysporum, Gliocladium sp., Humicola sp. and white sterile mycelia were recorded in all the leaf samples. It showed that infected and yellow leaves of the plant harboured maximum number of endophytic fungi followed by mature and young leaves. Moist chamber method was suitable to isolate and record the endophytic fungi correctly in comparison to agar plate method.