ALE of five crops viz., garlic, onion, pearl millet, sunflower
and sorghum had the maximum inhibitory effects on mycelial
growth of S. rolfsii and no sclerotia were formed even after
20 days of inoculation. The colony diameter was minimum
(17.1 mm) in garlic leaf extract and the maximum (90.0 mm)
in soybean and groundnut leaf extracts compared to the
control (83.3 mm) (Table 1). ALE of wheat, pigeon pea, maize,
green gram and black gram moderately inhibited mycelial
growth, and there was sclerotial formation but the size of
sclerotia was smaller and was fewer in number as compared
to the control. ALE of groundnut and soybean enhanced
mycelial growth and number of sclerotia formed compared
to the control. The number of sclerotia were highest in ALE
of groundnut (427) followed by soybean (390) as compared
to control (316). The size of sclerotia formed in culture were
also maximum in ALE of groundnut (2.1 mm) followed
soybean (1.9 mm) as compared to control (1.7 mm). ALE of
green gram, pigeon pea, black gram, wheat and maize
reduced the number and size of sclerotia produced by S.
rolfsii as compared to control. The differential effect of ALE
indicated the presence of inhibitory or stimulatory compound
in the leaves of these crops. The active compounds in extracts
of Allium spp. was reported to be n-propyl and allylsulphides
(Coley-Smith and Cooke, 1971).