ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF TEAK (TECTONA GRANDISL.F) LEAF EXTRACT AGAINST ARTHRINIUM PHAEOSPERMUM (CORDA) M.B. ELLIS, THE CAUSE OF WOOD DECAY ON ALBIZIA FALCATARIA (L.) FOSBERG

ABSTRACT Arthrinium phaeospermum (Corda) M.B. Ellis is one of the fungi which causes decay on Albizia falcataria (L.) Fosberg wood.Synthetic fungicides are commonly applied to reduce wood decay, however, its improper use may cause environmental and health problems. The extract of higher tropical plants wereproven by previous workers to possess antimicrobial activities against plant pathogenic fungi. In this study, the antifungal activity ofteak leaf extract was tested against A. phaeospermum, the cause of wood decayin A. falcataria . The air-dried leaves of teak, Tectona grandis wereextracted with methanol and evaporated in a rotary evaporator. Antifungal activity of the leaf extract was tested based on well diffusion method on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Leaf extracts,0.5 %, 1 %, 2 % and 4 % (w/v) were tested in this study. Sterile distilled water containing 0.2% Tween-80 was used as solventand control. The resultsof this study showed that the teak leaf extract at a concentration as low as 0.5% (w/v) suppressedsignificantlythe growth of A. phaeospermumby 81.4%, with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 0.4 % (w/v). The leaf extract inhibited significantly the fungal radial growth, total biomass and sporulation. Key words: antimicrobial activity, tropical plants, pathogenic fung