Antibacterial Activity of Thymus capitatus, Artemisia Herba-alba and Silybum marianum Extracts Against potato Soft Rot Bacteria

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

1 Plant Protection Department, Pesticide Unit, Desert Research center

2 Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Desert and Environmental Agriculture, Matrouh University, Marsa Matruh, Egypt.

3 Plant Protection Department, Pesticide Unit, Desert Research Center, Mataria, Cairo, Egypt.

4 Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.

Abstract

Potato soft rot, caused by Pectobacterium and Dickeya species, poses a serious threat to crop productivity worldwide. While chemical pesticides and antibiotics are traditionally used for disease management, their effectiveness is variable, and overuse has raised significant concerns regarding environmental toxicity, health risks, and the acceleration of antibiotic resistance in human pathogens. This study investigates the antibacterial potential of hexane and ethanolic extracts from Thymus capitatus, Artemisia herba-alba, and Silybum marianum against three soft rot pathogens: P. atrosepticum, D. dadantii, and P. carotovorum. Using the disc diffusion method, all plant extracts exhibited inhibitory effects, with hexane extracts consistently outperforming ethanolic ones. T. capitatus hexane extract demonstrated the highest activity, particularly against P. carotovorum, achieving a 15.33 mm inhibition zone at 5 mg/ml and a low MIC of 0.625 mg/ml. These results support the potential of lipophilic plant-derived compounds as effective and eco-friendly alternatives to synthetic antimicrobials for controlling bacterial soft rot in potatoes.

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