Chemical Pesticides and Plant Essential Oils for Disease Control of Tomato Bacterial Wilt

Efficacy of different control methods was evaluated for disease management of tomato bacterial wilt caused by $Ralstonia$ $solanacearum$. All six chemical pesticides applied to the bacterial suspension showed $in$ $vitro$ bactericidal activities against $R.$ $solanacearum$. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of copper hydroxide (CH), copper hydroxide-oxadixyl mixture (CH+O), and copper oxychloride-dithianon mixture (CO+D) were all 200 ${\mu}g/ml$; MIC of copper oxychloride-kasugamycin (CO+K) mixture was 100 ${\mu}g/ml$; MICs of both streptomycin- validamycin (S+V) and oxine copper-polyoxine B mixture (OC+PB) were 10 ${\mu}g/ml$. Among these chemical pesticides, treatment of the detached tomato leaves with the 5 pesticides (1 mg/ml), except for OC+PB delayed early wilting symptom development caused by the bacterial inoculation ($10^6$ and $10^7$ cfu/ml). Four pesticides, CH, CH+O, CO+K and S+V, showed disease protection in pot analyses. Six plant essential oils, such as cinnamon oil, citral, clove oil, eugenol, geraniol and limonene, differentially showed their antibacterial activities $in$ $vitro$ against $R.$ $solanacearum$ demonstrated by paper disc assay. Among those, cinnamon oil and clove oil exert the most effective activity for protection from the wilt disease caused by the bacterial infection ($10^6$ cfu/ml). Treatment with cinnamon oil and clove oil also suppressed bacterial disease by a higher inoculum concentration ($10^7$ cfu/ml). Clove oil could be used for prevention of bacterial wilt disease of tomato plants without any phytotoxicity. Thus, we suggest that copper compounds, antibiotics and essential oils have potency as a controlling agent of tomato bacterial wilt.