Antifungal Activity of Lagenaria breviflora Fruit Extracts Against Wood Rotting Fungi on Vitex doniana Wood

As a result of contemporary environmental concerns, a number of studies from plants' tissues as one of the alternatives to conventional chemicals are increasingly investigated. In tandem with these trends, Lagenaria breviflora (LB) fruit, reputed as antiviral and depilatory agents in the Yoruba folkloric medicine was examined on Vitex doniana wood to ascertain its antifungal activity. Fungicides of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% LB fruits formulations (concentrations) were developed through simple one-step mechanical-forming process, including control. In this study, the yield, the chemical compositions, the absorption capacity of the fungicides and wood weight losses (WWL) analysis were evaluated to investigate the antifungal activity of LB fruit on wood. The fruit extract yielded 35.4% of fresh juice weight. LB fruits contained total: alkaloids ($8.78{\pm}0.21mg/mL$), flavonoids ($2.01{\pm}0.02mg/mL$), phenol ($7.42{\pm}0.09mg/mL$), saponins ($11.00{\pm}0.10mg/mL$) and tannins ($5.47{\pm}0.05mg/mL$) contents. All the formulations provided effective protection against the tested wood fungi compared to control. Interestingly, the antifungal activity of 50% and 25% formulations of 6.8% WWL and 9.9% WWL satisfied the excellent fungal resistance class description against white rot fungus (Ganoderma lucidum) and brown rot fungus (Fibroporia vaillantii), respectively according to ASTM D 2017. These results thus, support LB fruit as a strong potential source of natural antifungals for industrial wood production.