Antifungal activity of sequentially extracted different cold organic solvents extracts of some common medicinal plants found in Jaffna peninsula, such as Cassia alata, Azadirachta indica, Lantana camara and Mangifera indica against four phytopathogenic fungi, Fusarium sp, Alternaria sp, Aspergillus sp and Pythium sp by agar well diffusion method were studied .. Synthetic fungicide Dithane M-45 (mancozeb) and ethyl acetate were used as standard and control repectively. Overall, A.indica showed higher degree of antifungal activity compared to other tested plants. Hexane extracts of M.indica and L.camara did not exhibit activity at all. However hexane extracts of C.alata and A.indica only revealed the antifungal activity even though which had lower activity than the other tested extracts. In which the inhibitory effect of ethylacetate of stem bark of C.alata on Pythium sp was higher (32 mm) than the other extracts after 48 hours. Both ethyl extracts of root bark of M.indica and stem bark of L.camara revealed significantly highest inhibition on Alternaria spp were 29 mm and 25 mm respectively after 48 hours incubation. Besides this, approximately similar inhibition zone (29 mm) was produced by ethylacetate extract of root bark of A.indica and leaf of A.indica against Pythium sp at same concentration. Moreover, this study revealed that the leaf extracts produced prominent inhibitory effect against fungi. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of various bioactive compounds such as alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, phlobatannins, saponins, tannins, terpenoids and steroids in tested extracts which were differ quantitatively. However, further studies should be performed for the isolation and characterization of the active compounds.
