ESTIMATION OF PRODUCTION OF EXTRACELLULAR PHENOL BY ALTERNARIA SOLANI A LEAF SPOT PATHOGEN OF NEEM (AZADIRACHTA INDICA L.) PAWAR A. B. * AND SALER, R.S *K.K.Wagh Arts, Commerce and Science college Pimpalgaon(B), Dist Nashik P. G. Department of Botany, K.T.H.M.College, Nashik-2 Received on:07.06.2014 and Accepted Revised on:19.12.2014 ABSTRACT : Alternaria solani was a potential leaf spot pathogen of Azadirachta indica L, was isolated from diseased Azadirachta indica L leaves from Nashik and used for the present study. Pathogen was grown on the Czapek-Dox liquid medium substituting or adding different carbon, nitrogen to study phenol production. Considerable variation in the production of total phenol was observed when different carbon compounds were incorporated in the medium. Fructose shows maximum production of phenol, while control shows minimum phenol production. It was observed that nitrogen compound were favorable for production of phenols highest phenols were detected on control and minimum on potassium nitrate. Keywords : Alternaria solani, Azadirachta indica, phenol. INTRODUCTION: Phenolic compounds are widely distributed amongst living organisms, particularly in plants where they play an important role in response to pathogenic agents, having antibacterial and antiparasitic activity, sometimes being highly specific (Del Signore et al., 1997). Such compounds have one or more aromatic rings, with one or more hydroxyl groups; they can be found as simple molecules (phenolic acids, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids) or as highly polymerized compounds (lignin, melanin, tannins) and most of their biological effects have been attributed to their antioxidant activity (Barros et al., 2009). Even though their presence has been reported in many species of fungi these compounds have been little studied in the genus Ganoderma. It has been reported that polyphenols are the principal antioxidant components in methanol extracts 1 of G. lucidum (16.5 to 27.9 mg.g ) (Saltarelli et al., 2009) and of G. tsugae (24.0 to 35.6 mg/g) (Mau et al., 2005). Many G. lucidum-based products are available on the market in the form of tea, powders and extracts due to their beneficial human health properties (Xuanwei et al., 2007). They are normally produced from the fruiting body and cultured by solid state fermentation; however, this production method has serious disadvantages, including an extensive culture time (around six months), the difficulty in controlling product quality and the culture's susceptibility to environmental changes (Chang et al., 2006). Efforts have thus been directed towards producing bioactive substances in submerged fermentation, mainly by studying culture conditions and media formulated for producing biomass and metabolites such as polysaccharides and ganoderic acid (Yang and Liau, 1998; Yang et al., 2000; Fang et al., 2002; Tang and Zhong., 2002; Chang et al., 2006; Tang et al., 2010; Zhu et al., 2010). However, there are no reports of studies for producing phenolic compounds in submerged culture. Phenol are the simplest benzene derivatives frequently formed in plants is esterified state as methoxy compounds. It has been suggested that the major difference between resistance and susceptible varieties in the velocity of accumulation of MATERIALS AND METHODS : phenolic compounds. Initially phenolic content increases in the susceptible and resistant varieties but with symptom development, phenol decreases in the susceptible variety while in the resistant varieties phenolic compounds accumulate. This is attributable at least partly to the long history of phenol oxidase investigations, started in the 1890s when a phenol oxidase was discovered in mushrooms, and partly because some microbial sources (eg.,Pleurotus ostreatus and Trametes versicolor), produce both types of enzyme (Palmieri, G.et. al.;1993). The present study thus established the composition of a culture medium for producing phenol from Alternaria solani in liquid culture medium. A was analyzed by replacing different carbon and nitrogen compound in culture medium at 0 25 c. Neem (Azadirachta indica L) leaves affected with leaf spot diseases were collected from different locations of Nashik. Isolation of pathogen from these affected leaves were carried out on Czapek-Dox agar medium (NaNO - 3.00g, K HPO - 3 2 4 1.00g, MgSO , 7H O - 0.5g, FeSO , 7H O - 0.01g, Sucrose - 4 2 4 2 30g, Agar - 20g, Distilled water- 1000ml.) by usual tissue incubation technique. The Petriplates were incubated at room 0 temperature (22-28 C) until good growth of organism was observed. It was found that Alternaria solani causes leaf spot disease to Neem plant. The colonies free from contamination were transferred on Czapek-Dox agar slant and maintained for further studies. Eight days old culture of organism was used for biochemical studies. Microorganism:- Alternaria solani Method-Estimation of total phenols method (Sadashivan et.al; 1996) BIONANO FRONTIER 69 Print ISSN 0974-0678, Online : 2320-9593, www.bionanofrontier.org Vol. 8 (1) January-June 2015