Studies on isolation and identification of fungi associated with banana rots were carried out. The effect of aqueous and ethanol extract of Citrus paradisi were determined in vitro on causative agents of post-harvest rot of banana. Concentrations of 20, 40 and 60% of both aqueous and ethanol extract of Citrus paradisi were used. The treatments were laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Rhizoctonia solani, Rhizopus stolonifer, Colletotrichum musae and Pyricularia grisea were isolated and identified to be associated with the banana rots. Rhizoctonia solani has the highest frequency of occurrence with 37.50% followed by Rhizopus stolonifer with 26.25% and the least was Pyricularia grisea with 17.50%. Concentrations of both aqueous and ethanol extract (20, 40 60%), significantly (p< 0.05) inhibited radial mycelial growth of the fungi compared with the control. All citric extracts at varying concentrations were effective in reducing the mycelial growth and the effect was proportional to the concentration of the extract. The inhibition was highest at 60% concentration and lowest at 20% concentration. Both Aqueous and ethanol extract suppressed the growth of all the fungal isolates, but the ethanolic extract showed higher inhibition on fungal isolates. The study revealed that both aqueous and ethanol extract have antifungal properties to control banana rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani, Rhizopus stolonifer, Colletotrichum musae and Pyricularia grisea which serves as good option to synthetic fungicide which are hazardous and often costly.
