Antifungal Effect of Silicon against Anthracnose on Fruit in Papaya Maradol

• Published in: SILICON 2022-08, Vol.14 (13), p.8243-8254
• Main Authors: Vidal-Vergara, Abril A., Moscoso-Ramírez, Pedro A., García-De la Cruz, Rubén, Landero-Valenzuela, Nadia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aqueous solutions; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Citrus fruits; Disease prevention; Environmental Chemistry; Experiments; Fungi; Fungicides; Inorganic Chemistry; Lasers; Materials Science; Optical Devices; Optics; Original Paper; Papayas; Pesticides; Photonics; Polymer Sciences; Potassium; Potassium silicates; Silicon; Sodium silicates
• ISSN: 1876-990X; 1876-9918
• DOI: 10.1007/s12633-021-01588-1

The antifungal activity of postharvest Silicon (Si) against papaya anthracnose was determined on papaya cv. Maradol artificially inoculated with Colletotrichum brevisporum and incubated at 25–26 °C for 5 or 6 d. Results of in vitro and in vivo primary experiments of potassium silicate (PS) and sodium silicate (SS) were taken into account to select effective doses for subsequent dip experiments. Dip preventive treatment times were tested. Preventive dips of 1.5% PS and 1.0% SS at 20 °C for 60 and 90 s, respectively, were selected and applied alone or in combination with the 250 μL L −1 thiabendazole (TBZ) conventional fungicide. PS at 3.0 and 2.5% were the most effective to inhibit the mycelial growth of C. brevisporum (93 and 91%, respectively), and SS at these same concentrations inhibited totally the mycelial growth of the fungus. In in vivo primary experiments, PS at 1.5% and SS at 1.0% consistently prevented the anthracnose incidence (6.3 and 0.0%, respectively). All the treatments with SS consistently reduced the anthracnose severity (severity of 0.0–1.4 mm of lesion diameter), but not PS. Preventive dips with PS at 1.5% for 60 s and SS at 1.0% for 90 s, at 20 °C, significantly reduced the anthracnose incidence (6.7 and 0.0%, respectively), but when combined with low doses of TBZ did not improved the control of anthracnose disease. Results of this study show consistently the preventive antifungal effect of the Si on the incidence and severity of the postharvest anthracnose in papaya.