Nutritional and cultural characteristics of post harvest rot of banana caused by Colletotrichum musae

Abstract

Banana (Musa paradisiaca L.) is considered as the most popular fruit both in ripe and raw condition. It has high starch content and nutritional value. Banana is highly perishable and post harvest rot mostly caused by Colletotrichum musae which possesses a great threat to ripe banana after harvest and in transit also causing 35% loss. The growth of the pathogen was tested in 10 different solid media to find out the cultural characteristics. The best solid media which supported the radial growth was found to be Corn meal agar (CMA) having 55.50 mm radial growth followed by oat meal agar (OMA) having 54.34 mm radial growth. Saline agar produced the least growth (15.5 mm) over a period of 7 days. Among the seven nitrogen sources tested against the fungus, L-Asparagine recorded highest growth of fungus with 1496 mg dry mycelial growth followed by Ammonium sulphate (885 mg).