Antifungal, Nematicidal and Antioxidant Activity of the Methanol Extracts Obtained from Medicinal Plants

The nematicidal, antifungal and antioxidant activities of methanol extracts from six Vietnamese native medicinal plants were evaluated by various assays in vitro. Of the plant extracts tested, Terminalia nigrovenulosa was found to possess the highest activity when compared to the others. The leaves and bark of T. nigrovenulosa showed strong inhibitory activity against Meloidogyne incognita and Fusarium solani. The DPPH (1,1-Diphenyl-2- picryl-hydrazyl) radical scavenging, reducing power and total antioxidant activities of T. nigrovenulosa bark were higher than that of the remainder plant extracts. Chitinase activity of these plants was also investigated using SDS-PAGE. The results obtained in the present study indicate that T. nigrovenulosa leaf extracts are the greatest potential source as nematicides and fungicides for the control of M. incognita and F. solani. In particularly, T. nigrovenulosa bark extracts could be used as a potential source of commercially viable levels of natural antioxidant.