Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Pflanzenbauwissenschaften Band 23

Mitt. Ges. Pflanzenbauwiss. 23: 261–262 (2011)
Fungal infection and its control in anise (Pimpinella anisum L.)
results of two field experiments
Habib Ullah and Bernd Honermeier
Institute of Agronomy and Plant Breeding I, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen. E-Mail: Habib.Ullah
@agrar.uni-giessen.de
Introduction
Anise (Pimpinella anisum L.) is an annual spice and medicinal plant belonging to the
family of Apiaceae. Botanically, the seeds are defined as fruits containing around 1.5
to 5.0% essential oil mainly composed of volatile phenylpropanoid like trans-anethole
with more than 90% (Tabanca et al. 2005). Today, anise seeds are an important
natural raw material which is used for pharmaceutics, perfumery, food and cosmetic
industries (Ross, 2001). Aniseed plants can be infected by the fungal pathogen
Cercospora malkoffii. The symptoms are characterized by cylindrical light brown
spots with dark veins which can be found on leaves, stems and flowers. The infection
starts at the lower parts of the plants at the underside of the leaves. The seeds get
dark color which comes from stomata of the fungus. The purpose of the present
research was to evaluate the efficacy of various fungicides against the fungal
infection under the ecological conditions of (Hessen) in Germany.
Materials and Methods
The field experiments were carried out in 2009 and 2010 at the research station in
Groß-Gerau (49 o 45´N and 8 o 29´E, 90.7 m above sea level, sandy soil, mean air
temperature: 9.4 o C, mean precipitation: 590 mm/year). The experiments were
designed as RCBD with four replications. Two cultivars Enza Zaden and Pharmasaat
were planted with seed rate of 12 kg/ha in 1.5 x 7.0 m 2 plots with row spacing of
18.7 cm. Five different fungicides were used: Folpet + Metalaxyl-M (2 kg/ha),
Azoxystrobin + Difenoconazol (2x1.0 L/ha), Mancozeb+ Diemethomorph (2 kg/ha),
Propamocarp (3 L/ha), Fosetyl (3 kg/ha) which were applied at different growth
stages. After germination of anise 40 kg N/ha were applied in each year. The fungal
disease severity on anise plants was recorded by grading 1-9 (1: without infection, 9:
whole plants are infected). Visual fungal disease incidence was assessed for each
plot fortnightly. The harvest was made by a combine harvester at the time of full
ripeness of the fruits. Anise fruits were hydro-distillated for two hours using a
distillatory apparatus of Neo-Clevenger. The essential oil was analyzed using a
Varian CP-3800 gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detector (GC–
FID). A capillary column DB - 5 (30 m x 0.25 mm i.d. and 0.25 µm coting thickness)
was used for the separation of individual components of essential oil.
Results and Discussion
Cultivars showed similar trend of planting densities in 2009, however higher
germination was recorded by cv. Enza Zaden as compared with cv. Pharmasaat in
2010. Anise plants were infected by the fungal pathogen Cercospora malkoffii in a
range from 3.8 to 7.3 and 4.0 to 6.0 (level) respectively in 2009 and 2010, which led
to brown colored leaf spots. Higher fungal infection was assessed in 2009 as
compared to 2010. The study shows that fungicide applications had significant
impact on fruit yield of aniseed in both years. Fungicidal treatments Folpet +