Milestones in plant pathology with reference to India. Contribution of Indian pathologist in the field of pathology.

1. Milestonesin Phytopathology
with referenceto India
• Presented by :
• ShaliniChaudhary
• Msc (Botany)
• 4th Semester

2. HISTORY :
 History means chronological account of important events,
contribution of persons who influenced the thinking of their era.
PLANT
PATHOLOGY :
• Pathology = Greek word ‘pathos’ and ‘logos’.
‘Pathos’ means suffering and ‘logos’ means to study.
“Study of plant sufferings”
Or
“Study of plant diseases”

3. History of plant
pathology in India
:
Four phases:
1. Ancient period
2. Dark period
3. Renaissance period
4. Modern period

4. Ancient Period :
 Historically, plant pathology in India is quite
ancient as the Indian agriculture, which is nearly
4000 years old.
 History of plant pathology is best referred from
the ancient literatures.
 There are references in theVedas about plant
diseases and the methods of their control .
 Such control methods have also been recorded in
other books.

5.  The events of the development of plant pathology in
India are chronologically recorded as follows:
Rigveda (3700 BC)
Arthashastra (321-186 BC)
Sushruta Samhita (200-500 AD)
Vishnu Purana (500 AD)
Agnipurana (500-700 AD)
Vrikshayurveda (1000 AD)
 In those time learned people also knew that the
diseases were caused by microorganisms.

6. • Symptoms of plant diseases are sighted in other
ancient Indian literatures viz. Jataka of
Buddhism, Raghuvansha of Kalidas etc.
• The oldest document on the use of organic
materials to control crop disorders is probably
Kautilya’s Arthashastra.
• Kautilya recommend that seed should be left in
open for 7 days and this was the oldest reference
of seed treatment with solar radiation.
• It was Someshwara Deva who first suggested
treatment of seed with Ash to ensure good
germination.

7. Ancient Period
Theophrastus (370-286 BC)
• AGreek Scholar.
• He was a disciple of Plato and colleague of Aristotle.
• Most of his works is lost.
• Two of his books,Historian plantarum and DeCausis Plantarum used as reference
of his work.
• He studied and wrote about the diseases of trees,cereals and legumes.
• He mentioned plant diseases (rusts,mildews,blights) but expressed that these were
due to bad nutrition and air.
• He was not aware that microorganisms caused disease.
• His approach was speculative rather than experimental.

8. SURAPAL (1500 BC)
• Vrikshayurveda by SURAPAL (India) is the first
book in India where he gave detail account of
plant diseases and their control.
• ‘Vrikshayurveda’ literally means Ayurveda of
plants.
• The original text of Vrikshayurveda were
unavailable till YL Nene ( Chairman,AAF) procured
it from the Bodlein Library,Oxford,UK.
• Nalini Sadhale undertook the translation of the
text at Nene’s request translated Sanskrit text of
Vrikshayurveda into English.

9. • In his book , plant diseases work categorised into
two group:
Internal ( physiological diseases) and
External ( infectious diseases)
• External diseases were supposed to be due to
attack of microorganisms and insects
• Tree surgery, protective covering with pastes
were mentioned and still recommended
• In chemical treatments, use of honey, ghee, milk,
barley flour,pastes made from herbs, plant
extracts etcwere recommended.
• For the control of root diseases, oilcakes of
mahua, mustard, sesame, castor etc were used.

10. Dark Period :
 5th century -16 the century
 Also called pre renaissance period in history.
 No increase in the knowledgeof plant pathology.

11. ModernPeriod /
GoldenPeriod /
PathogenicEra
(1800-1900)
IRISH FAMINE
 In 1845, the potato crop in Ireland was completely
wiped out by late blight disease.
 Caused great famine in 1846.
 This resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of
people.
 Immigration of more than one and a half million Irish to
United States.

12. 1831AD
Anton de Bary
 Father of Plant Pathology
 Established that fungi are the
caused,not result of plant diseases.
 Renamed the causal organism of late
blight as Phytophthora understand.
 He discovered heteroecious nature
of rust fungi.(1865)
 Detailed life cycles of Downy
mildew.
 He wrote a book named Morphology
and Physiology of fungi, Lichens and
Myxomycetes.(1866)

13. History of
Indian Plant
Pathologists
Edwin John Butler (1874-1943)
 Father of Indian Plant Pathology.
 Born in 1874 Kilkee,Country Clare.
 He was the son ofThomas Butler.
 Plant pathological research started in India in 1905
with the establishment of Imperial Agricultural
Institute at Pusa,Samastipur (Bihar).
 He was appointed as the first Imperial mycologist.
 His work on Phytophthorablight of potato and
fusarium wilt of pigeon pea in 1906 & 1910 were
pioneer contributions.

14. • Other contributions include his classical work on genus Pythium and
Chytridiaceous fungi.
• He made extensive work on red rot of sugarcane and it’s control in
1906 and 1913.
• His great contribution to plant pathology in India is reflected through
the book “Fungi and Diseases in Plants” written in 1918.
• About 200 diseases of Indian crops were included which he studied in
the field and in the laboratory.
• This book become a classics for Indian Plant Pathologists.
• Hence,Sir EJ Butler is rightly credited as the “Father of Plant
Pathology in India” for laying the sound foundation of Plant
Pathology.
• He is commemorated by Butler Medal was initiated by the Society of
Irish Plant Pathologists in 1977.

15. J.F DASTUR
(1886-1971)  Jehangir Fardunji DASTUR born on 10
September,1886 at Bhavnagar ,Gujarat.
 He was a colleague of EJ Butler.
 First Indian Pathologist who was credited for his
detailed studies on fungi and plant diseases.
 He studied the Phytophthora diseases of potato and
castor (in 1915 and 1917).
 He is internationally known for establishment of
species Phytophthora parasitica from castor.

16. KC MEHTA
(1892-1950)
 Dr.KC Mehta was born in Amritsar in 1892.
 His field of specialisation was Plant Pathology.
 He is famous for his research regarding the recurrence of
rust in the plains in India.
 In 1920 he went to Cambridge University where he
worked on the Black rust ofCereals.
 He was awarded pH.D degree by Cambridge University
in 1922.
 In 1923 he became Professor of Botany at AgraCollege.
 He made outstanding contribution to the disease cycle
of rust in India.

17. • He was the first person to initiate studies on
epidemiology of wheat rusts.
• He worked on recurrence of Black rust in the plains of
India.
• He was pioneer in establishing Flowerdale Rust
Laboratory where pathotype analysis of rust is taken.
• In his honour,this laboratory launched the newsletter
“Mehtaensis” (named after Mehta) in 1981.
• Published a monograph entitled “Further studies on
cereal rusts in India” in 1948.
• Clearly, he was a most intellectual and diligent person
who laid a strong foundation to combat cereal rusts.

18. DR.
RAGHUBIR
PRASADA
 He was born in 1907 in Uttar Pradesh.
 He was trained by KC Mehta.
 He contributed a lot by identification of
physiological races of cereal rusts.
 He described life cycle of flax rust.
 Also made significant contribution on Alternaria
blight of wheat.
 He was editing the journal Indian Phytopathology
for six years as chief editor.
 Established Society of Mycology and Plant
Pathology at Udaipur in 1971.

19. B.BMUNDKUR
(1896-1952)
 Balachandra Bhawanishankar Mundkur born on June 26,1896 in
Mundkar village near Mangalore
 He was appointed as mycologist in the division of Mycology at
IARI,Pusa,Bihar after receiving his doctorate degree in 1931 from
USA.
 He started work on control of cotton wilt in Maharashtra and
reduced losses to a large extent.
 His most significant contribution was establishment of IPS “Indian
Phytopathological Society” in 1947 with it’s journal “Indian
Phytopathology” in 1948.
 The credit for identifying and classifying the smut fungi found in
India also goes to Mundkur.
 Wrote book “Fungi and Plant Diseases”(1949).
 Wrote monographs in collaboration with Dr. MJThirumalachar
1. Ustilaginales of India
2. Supplements of fungi of India
3. Gebera of Rusts

20. SUBRAMANIAM
NAGARAJAN
 He was born on November 1945 in Chennai,India.
 He is internationally respected as a wheat
pathologist.
 He has been awarded with the Borlaug award
recently.
 Due to Nagarajan’s work ,for the last 12 years there
has been no serious crop loss due to rust epidemics.
 He has formulated ‘Indian Stem Rust Rules’ for
‘Puccinia gramunis tritici’.
 Along with his colleagues, he identified two new leaf
rust resistance genes Lr48 and Lr49.

21. C.DMAYEE
 Charudatta Digambarrao Mayee born in
Maharashtra ( India)
 Known as “Father of Bt cotton in India”.
 He was the director of the Central Institute of Cotton
Research (CICR) in Nagpur from 2000- 2003.
 Former co- chairman of the Genetic Engineering
Approval Committee (GEAC).
 Under his chairmanship,GEAC approved over 300
hybrit Bt cotton seeds.
 Contributed to the understanding of groundnut rust,
sunflower Downy mildew.
 He wrote Phytopathometry.

22. HISTORYOF BACTERIOLOGISTIN INDIA
MAKANJI KALYANJI PATEL
• Born in Bardoli Gujarat in 1899.
• Laid the foundation of Phytobacteriology in India.
• First described a new species Xanthomonas campestris
pv.uppali in 1948 from host Ipomoea muricata.
• First documented that black spot of mango is caused by
Pseudomonads mangiferaeindicae later pathogen renamed
as Xanthomonas campestris.
• Also called as “Father of Indian Plant Bacteriology”
• He described more than 30 diseases from India including
bacterial leaf spot of Cyamopsis tetragonaloba, bacterial leaf
spot ofAmaranthus viridis.

23. M.K HINGORANI
• He reported about complex nature of Tundu
disease of wheat
• It is caused by a bacterium ,Corynebacterium
tritici and a nematode ,Anguini tritici in 1952.
• Confirmed causal agent of ring disease of potato
as Pseudomonads solanacearum.
• In 1959, he first reported Xanthomonas punicae
pv. punici causing bacterial blight of
pomegranate.

24. CONTRIBUTIONIN PLANTVIROLOGY
SP RAYCHAUDHURI(1916-2005)
• First observed virus particles in sunhemp mosaic
disease.
• He observed all leaf hopper borne plant viruses
are transmitted in a persistent manner except
Rice tungro virus (semi persistent manner).
NARAYAN RISHI
• He is one of the senior most plant virologist in
the country.
• Advisor,Amity Institute of viriloand
Immunology,Amity University.
• Studied viral disease of legumes and their
management.

25. CONCLUSION
Plant Pathology is a science that studies plant diseases and attempts
to improve the chances for survival of plants when they are faced with
unfavourable environmental conditions and parasitic microorganisms
that cause disease.
The ultimate goal is to prevent or minimize plant diseases not only to
increase food production but also to maintain the quantity and quality
of the plants.