Aging Effect on Accumulation of Sakuranetin in Paddy Plant after Elicitation by Silver Nitrate

* Author for correspondence: K.P. Chong, School of Sustainable Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88999, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Tel: +6088-320000 Fax: +6088320278, [email protected]. Abstract. Rice blast disease, caused by Pyricularia oryzae Cav. is the most serious fungal disease in rice crop, and this disease has caused significant yield losses worldwide. Sakuranetin which is a low molecular mass compound will be produced by paddy to protect paddy once the paddy is attacked by blast disease. A study was carry out on the effect of aging on production of phytoalexin (Sakuranetin) after elicitation by silver nitrate. Paddy leaves were extracted after elicited by 1% silver nitrate solution for 12 weeks at two weeks interval using different leaves to determine the accumulation of sakuranetin. The highest accumulation of sakuranetin was in week six (1.32 μg ml-1) and the lowest in week 12 (0.37μg ml-1). The accumulation of sakuranetin increased from the four to six week and then decreased as the plant aged for the remaining six weeks. Moreover, week six had accumulation significantly different (p < 0.05) with the other four weeks. The regression test also showed that the production of sakuranetin was affected by aging.