Diseases in Mint: Causal Organisms, Distribution, and Control Measures

ABSTRACT

Mints (Mentha species) are very familiar aromatic herbs, grown in India and several other countries of the world for essential oils that are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and perfumery industries. This review describes various diseases in mint under the four sub-topics: fungal, nematode, viral and phytoplasmal, and bacterial. A review of the literature reveals that the most economically serious diseases are caused by the fungi Puccinia menthae (rust), Alternaria alternata (leaf spot); Verticillium dahliae (wilt), Phoma stasserti (stem rot), Rhizoctonia solani/bataticola (root and stolon rot) and Erysiphe cichor-acearum (powdery mildew). With mints, as with other crop plants, fungicides are used to control disease. Several studies suggest that the control of disease through chemicals appears more attractive if the pathogen is present in the planting material (stolon, sucker or runner) and a small area is treated for producing a healthy disease-free nursery. For effective chemical control against multiple diseases, application of propioconazole is frequently used. This review on mint diseases indicates that considerable progress has been achieved with respect to the identity of the causal organisms, and chemical control measures, but not much work has been dedicated for developing resistant crop varieties against the diseases. Because persistence of diseases in mints is very common due to vegetative propagation of the hosts, developing alternative means of propagation that would break the continuum in disease transmission becomes imperative. Analysis of the current research indicates that the development of seed-producing genotypes through breeding would be an attractive.

KEYWORDS:

• Fungal diseases
• Mentha
• nematodes
• peppermint
• spearmint
• viral diseases