THE EFFECTS OF SOME PLANT EXTRACTS IN INHIBITING THE GROWTH OF THE FUNGI PENICILLIUM DIGITATUM AND P. ITALICUM

The study aimed to investigate the spread of green and blue mold disease in stores and local markets, isolate and diagnose the causes of this disease, and study the efficiency of using plant extracts against pathogens under laboratory conditions. The results showed isolating the pathogen from the infected orange fruits, which were collected randomly from the local markets of Babylon Governorate / Al-Musayyab district. Four isolates of Pencillium digitatum and three isolates of Pencillium italicum were obtained. One isolate of Aspergillus fumigatus was discovered, and this is the first record in Iraq. The test results showed that all isolates obtained from local markets were pathogenic to orange fruits. The results of this study showed the superiority of tea extract with all concentrations used to inhibit the growth of P. digitatum and P. italicum, which gave an average inhibition rate of 85.18, 87.77 and 90.73%, respectively, for concentrations 5, 10 and 15%, respectively, for P. digitatum. The average inhibition percentage was 86.85, 88.88 and 91.1% for the concentrations 5, 10 and 15% respectively for P. italicum.