Ascorbic acid content in sugarcane as affected by pokkah boeng disease caused by Fusarium monilitorme sheld

An experiment was carried out at Chaudhary Chhotu Ram (PC) College; Muzaffarnagar to study the effect of infestation of pokkah boeng on ascorbic acid content in sugarcane plant. The ascorbic acid content was determined in leaf, bud, apical meristem and lateral shoots of infected and healthy plants offour susceptible cane varieties viz. CoS 98259, CoS 8436, CoS 8432 and CoSe 01424. The results indicated that there was an increase in the ascorbic acid content in all four kinds of tissues i.e. leaf, bud, apical meristem and lateral shoots of pokkah boeng affected plants in all the varieties tested. The highest content of ascorbic acid was recorded in lateral shoots followed by apical meristems, buds and leaves indicating that there was a similar pattern regarding the level of ascorbic acid in various tissues in both healthy as well as diseased plants irrespective of the variety. Both increase and decrease in the ascorbic acid contents in plant tissue have been reported following fungal infections. It is presumed that the enhancement in the ascorbic acid content in pokkah boeng affected stalks may be due to the production of ascorbic acid accelerating enzymes by the pathogen or due to the impact of host-parasite interactions.