• The Plant Pathology Journal
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.440-445
• /
• 2013

Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorum) is a kind of mountain herbs whose roots have restorative properties and the cultivating acreage of balloon flower has been steadily increasing in Korea. More frequent rain and high amount of rainfalls as a result of climate changes predisposed balloon flower to the outbreaks of root rot at high-density cultivation area in recent years. Root crowns were usually discolored into brown to blackish brown at first and the infected plants showed slight wilting symptom at early infection stage. Severely infected roots were entirely rotted and whole plants eventually died at late infection stage. The overall disease severities of root rot of balloon flower were quite variable according to the surveyed fields in Jeonnam, Gyeongnam and Jeju Provinces, which ranged from 0.1% to 40%. The root rot occurred more severely at the paddy or clay soils than the sandy soils and their severities were much higher at lowland than upland in the same localty. The disease increased with aging of the balloon flower. The causal fungi were identified as Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum on the basis of their mycological characteristics. The optimum temperature ranges of their mycelial growths was found to be $24^{\circ}C$. The pathogenic characters of F. solani and F. oxysporum treated by artificial wounding inoculation on healthy roots of balloon flower revealed that F. solani was more virulent than F. oxysporum. This study identified the causal agents of root rot of balloon flower as Fusarium solani and F. oxysporum, probably for the first time.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.435-440
• /
• 2000

A pathogenic fungus causing balloon flower root rot (Platycodon grandiflorum) was isolated from naturally infected roots. The microbial characteristics of the isolated microorganism were similar to those of Rhizoctonia solani. About 500 bacterial species from field soils were screened for a biological agent against the above-mentioned putative pathogen, and several bacteria with the antifungal activity were isolated. Among them, the isolated JS2 was identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This strain showed a broad spectrum of antifungal activity potentially. When the antifungal substance was purified from a broth culture of JS2, it was identified as 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol (Phl).