Incidence, and Identification of Three Root-Knot Nematobe species Occurring in the Medicinal Herbs

Soil and root samples were collected from the rhizosphere of 11 different medicinal plants to determine the incidence, density and identification of root-knot nematode species associated with medicinal herbs. About 55% of medicined was found to be infested with root-knot nematodes. As a result of infection caused by three root-knot nematodes, M. hapla recorded 43.3% in medicinal herbs whereas M. incognita and M. arenaria showed 7.9% and 3.7%, respectively Forsythia koreana, Hemerocalis fulva, Hibuscus mutabilis and Petasites japonicus were the most severely infested herbs whereas Acanthopanax sessiliflorus was least infested. Population of the second stage larvae ranges from 65 to 540/300 ml soil and older plant had higher number of numatodes than younger plants. Meloidogyne hapla, M. incognita and M. arenaria were the species associated with the medicinal gerbs. The most abundant nematode observed in medicinal herbs was M. hapla and followed by M. incognita and M.arenaria. M. arenaria was observed firstly on Ficus carica, one of medicinal plant.