History of Plant Pathology

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History of Plant Pathology :

A) Theophrastus :

Greek philosopher Theophrastus recorded some observations on the plant diseases in his book “Enquiry into plants”.
His experiences were mostly based on imagination and observation but not on experimentation.
He had mentioned that plants of different groups have different diseases which were autonomous or spontaneous, i.e., no external cause was associated.

B) India :

In India, the information on plant diseases is available in ancient literature such as rigveda, atharveda (1500-500BC), arthasashtra of Kautilya (321-186 BC), Sushruta sanhita (200-500AD), Vishnupuran (500AD), Agnipuran (500-700AD), Vishnu dharmottar (500-700AD), etc.

C) Rigveda :

In Rigveda, not only the classification of plant diseases has been given but the germ theory of disease was also advocated.

D) Vriksha Ayurveda :

Vriksha Ayurveda by Surpal in ancient India is the first book in which lot of information on plant diseases is available.
In this book, plant diseases were categorized into two groups, internal (probably physiological diseases) and external (probably infectious diseases).
External diseases were supposed to be due to attack of microorganisms and insects.

2,. PRE-MODERN PERIOD

1) PIER ANTONIO MICHELLI (Italian):

He was an Italian botanist.
He was the founder and father of Mycology.
He was the first person who observed fungal spores for the first time and
conducted many spore germination studies (by growing fungus organisms on freshly cut pieces of melons and pears).
He was the first person who observed Cystidia on the lamellar edge or hymenial layer of Agaricales.
In 1729 he published a book “Nova Plantarum Genera” in which he gave descriptions about 1900 species in Latin out of which 900 were fungi. The important genera are Aspergillus niger, Botrytis sps., Polyporus sps. Etc.

2) TILLET (French)

By well planned experiments he proved that wheat seeds that contained black powder on their surface produced more diseased plants than clean seeds.

He emphasized that bunt was an infectious disease and it was closely related with fungus. However, he believed that the disease was caused by some toxin produced by the black powder. He did not know that the black powder contained the spore mass of the fungus.

He reported that the chemical treatment of seeds with common salt and lime inhibited the contagious activity.

1) BENEDICT PREVOST (French)

He proved that diseases are caused by micro-organisms
He studied wheat bunt disease for about 10 years and in 1807, he published his findings in the paper “memoir on the immediate cause of bunt or smut of wheat and of several other diseases of plants and on preventives of bunt”
He proved that the bunt of wheat was caused by the fungus Tilletia caries , Studied and observed the germination of bunt species.
He confirmed the findings of Tillet by mixing the spores of fungus with clean seeds.
Discovered the life cycle of bunt fungus
He showed that the solution containing copper sulphate prevented the germination of bunt spores and can be used for control of bunt diseases.
He mentioned the fungicidal and fungistatic properties of chemical treatments

2) CHRISTIAN HENDRICK PERSOON (1761-1831):

Persoon first published observations Mycologicae.
In 1801, he published “Synopsis methodica fungorum” for nomenclature of Ustilaginales, Uredinales and Gasteromycetes.
He also published Mycologica Europica in 1822.
He gave the name to rust pathogen of wheat as Puccinia graminis.

3) ELIAS MAGNUS FRIES (1821):

He published three volumes of “Systema Mycologium” for nomenclature of hymenomycetes.
Person and fries first time introduced binomial system of nomenclature to classify the fungal organisms.
During 1830-1845, when late blight of potato was fast spreading in England, Ireland and continental Europe, there was no one opinion among the scientists about the disease- fungus relationship.

4) ANTON De BARY (Germany):

He was the father and founder of modern Mycology.
He was the founder of modern experimental plant pathology
In 1863, he studied the epidemics of late blight and renamed the casual organism as Phytophthora infestans.
He discovered heteroecious nature of rust fungi (1865).
He gave detailed account on life cycles of downy mildew genera.
He studied about vegetable rotting fungi and damping off fungi.
He wrote a book named “Morphology and Physiology of fungi, lichens and Myxomycetes” (1866).
He reported the role of enzymes and toxins in tissue disintegration caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum