Abstract
The study was carried out to isolate and characterize rhizospheric soil fungi of medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium L. growing in Kashmir Himalayas. The results revealed that ten fungi were found associated with rhizosphere of Artemisia absinthium L. The rhizosphere of Artemisia absinthium consisted of following fungi, viz., Aspergillus niger Van Tiegh., Aspergillus flavus Link. Fusarium oxysporium Schlecht.(emend) Snyder & Hansen. Pencillium chrysogenum Thom., Rhizopus stolonifer Vuillemin, Mucormucedo Linnaeus, Alternaria alternata (Fr., Keissler) Cladosporium cladosporioides (Fresen), GA de Vries, Trichoderma harzianum Rifai and Curvularia lunata Wakker, Boedijn and these species were identified on the basis of morphological, cultural and microscopic characteristics. These isolated rhizospheric fungi showed significant variation in frequency and relative abundance. Among the isolated fungi, Aspergillus niger was found in highest frequency (100%) and relative abundance (38.83%) whereas, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Curvularia lunata was found in less frequency of 8.33 per cent and relative abundance (0.48%) in the rhizosphere of the test plant. The study will be helpful in critical identification of soil fungi associated with other medicinal plants and some of the new fungi can be exploited for their antimicrobial activity or antibiotic activity against pathogenic fungi.
NSTL