Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) ethanolic extract as biocontrol agent for sheath blight disease management in rice crop/ by Saundra Einna V. Canto, Ma. Arabella G. Grate, Mikaela Lawrence Marie C. Puda, & Aisha Emmerich H. Dalangin.

Sheath blight disease is a fungal pathogen that causes leaf blight in rice plants, resulting in significant yield losses throughout the growing season caused by a toxin released by certain Rhizopus fungi that took a huge toll on the agricultural sector. Lemongrass possesses strong antioxidants and was detected to contain phytochemicals such as flavonoids (Roy et al., 2021). The antifungal activity of lemongrass ethanolic extract was tested against the fungi (Rhizopus Oryzae) by conducting the Kirby- bauer disk diffusion method along with 5 treatments (10% extract with 90% distilled water, 50% extract with 50% distilled water, 100% pure lemongrass extract, positive control (Nativo MG75 Bayer Fungicide), and negative control ( distilled water), compromisedof 3 replicates each treatment. The results depicted that lemongrass ethanolic extract generated the inhibition zones of 0.04±0.03, 0.12 ±0.04, and 0.22 ±0.25 against Rhizopus Oryzae. The positive control rendered an inhibition zone of 0.41 ±0.03, whereas no inhibition zone was observed for the negative control. The zone of inhibition developed by the lemongrass ethanolic extract can potentianally inhibit the growth of Rhizopus Oryzae in rice crops which highlights its capacity to be utilized as a BioControl agent for sheath blight disease management in rice crops. However, conducting further research towards the growth of rice crops if exposed to the ethanolic extract can increase its viability in testing.

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