CONTROL OF POTATO FUNGAL DISEASES USING ETHANOLIC EXTRACTS OF BITTER LEAF (VERNONIA AMYGDALINA) AND ALLIGATOR PEPPER (AFRAMOMUM MELEGUETE)

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batata L. (Lam) belongs to the convolulacae family and is a rot crop cultivated in many countries including Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ghana. Sweet potato is an important food crop in Nigeria ranking third amongst important tuber crops of Sub-Saharan Africa. Sweet potato is grown in general for its storage roots, which are eaten fresh, steamed or boiled. Sometimes the leaves are eaten as vegetables or may be processed into flour or starch. Quantitative and qualitative losses or a combination of both arising from post-harvest storage results from physical, physiological, or pathological factors or various combinations of these factors. The skin of the sweet potato root is damaged easily during harvest and post-harvest handling Boot. Freshly harvested potato was treated with different concentration of bitter leaf and scent leaf, ethanolic extract. Untreated potato was considered as control within seven days. Untreated potato started showing sign of decay which suggested the presence of fungal pathogens, aspergillus niger, mucor ramosiissimus and Rhizotonia was confirmed as the casual organism after isolation of the disease potato. The treated potato show significant differences in shelf life in case of disease severity and comparison to control potato. The effectiveness of the treatment was meaningful which could be recommended for the maintenance of postharvest of quality potato stored in ambient conditions.