Shuping D S S, Eloff J N
Phytomedicine Programme, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X04, Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa.
Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2017 Jun 5;14(4):120-127. doi: 10.21010/ajtcam.v14i4.14. eCollection 2017.
Plant fungal pathogens play a crucial role in the profitability, quality and quantity of plant production. These phytopathogens are persistent in avoiding plant defences causing diseases and quality losses around the world that amount to billions of US dollars annually. To control the scourge of plant fungal diseases, farmers have used fungicides to manage the damage of plant pathogenic fungi. Drawbacks such as development of resistance and environmental toxicity associated with these chemicals have motivated researchers and cultivators to investigate other possibilities.
Several databases were accessed to determine work done on protecting plants against plant fungal pathogens with plant extracts using search terms "plant fungal pathogen", "plant extracts" and "phytopathogens". Proposals are made on the best extractants and bioassay techniques to be used.
In addition to chemical fungicides, biological agents have been used to deal with plant fungal diseases. There are many examples where plant extracts or plant derived compounds have been used as commercial deterrents of fungi on a large scale in agricultural and horticultural setups. One advantage of this approach is that plant extracts usually contain more than one antifungal compound. Consequently the development of resistance of pathogens may be lower if the different compounds affect a different metabolic process. Plants cultivated using plants extracts may also be marketed as organically produced. Many papers have been published on effective antimicrobial compounds present in plant extracts focusing on applications in human health. More research is required to develop suitable, sustainable, effective, cheaper botanical products that can be used to help overcome the scourge of plant fungal diseases.
Scientists who have worked only on using plants to control human and animal fungal pathogens should consider the advantages of focusing on plant fungal pathogens. This approach could not only potentially increase food security for rural farmers, lead to commercial rewards, but it is also much easier to test the efficacy in greenhouse or field experiments. Even if extracts are toxic it may still be useful in the floriculture industry.
植物真菌病原体对植物生产的盈利能力、质量和产量起着关键作用。这些植物病原体持续逃避植物防御，导致全球范围内的疾病和质量损失，每年达数十亿美元。为了控制植物真菌病害的祸害，农民使用杀菌剂来管理植物病原真菌的损害。与这些化学物质相关的诸如抗性发展和环境毒性等缺点促使研究人员和种植者去探索其他可能性。
访问了几个数据库，以确定使用搜索词“植物真菌病原体”、“植物提取物”和“植物病原体”在利用植物提取物保护植物免受植物真菌病原体侵害方面所做的工作。提出了关于最佳提取剂和生物测定技术的建议。
除了化学杀菌剂外，生物制剂也已用于处理植物真菌病害。在农业和园艺环境中，有许多例子表明植物提取物或植物衍生化合物已被大规模用作真菌的商业抑制剂。这种方法的一个优点是植物提取物通常含有不止一种抗真菌化合物。因此，如果不同的化合物影响不同的代谢过程，病原体产生抗性的可能性可能会更低。使用植物提取物种植的植物也可以作为有机产品销售。关于植物提取物中存在的有效抗菌化合物的许多论文已经发表，重点是在人类健康方面的应用。需要更多的研究来开发合适的、可持续的、有效的、更便宜的植物产品，以帮助克服植物真菌病害的祸害。
仅致力于利用植物控制人类和动物真菌病原体的科学家应考虑专注于植物真菌病原体的优势。这种方法不仅有可能增加农村农民的粮食安全，带来商业回报，而且在温室或田间试验中测试其功效也更容易。即使提取物有毒，它在花卉产业中可能仍然有用。
