Abstract:
Phytophthora capsici, the causal organism of Phytophthora foot rot disease in black pepper
produces toxic metaholite(s) under in vitro conditions. Maximum accumulation of toxic metabolite(s) was
observed in shake cultures of 15 days incubation in Ribeiro's medium. The symptoms induced by toxic
metabolite(s) were quite typical to symptoms of natural and artificial infection by the pathogen. The toxic
metabolite(s) accumulated in the in vitro culture was found to be heat stable aim non-specific. The toxic
metabolite(s) could not be separated using organic solvent fractionation since it is present in the aqueous
fraction of the culture filtrate. However, ion exchangers like Dowex 1 and Dowex 50 could be used for
separating the metabolite(s) from the aqueous fraction.