Annual Research & Review in Biology

Colletotrichum destructivum was isolated from infected seeds and pods of cowpea (Var. IAR-48) with typical symptoms of anthracnose disease. The fungus during the pathogenesis, reduced the protein, fat, ash, crude fibre, carbohydrate, calcium and phosphorus, and increased the amount of iron, sodium, zinc, magnesium and potassium in the infected seed and husk. The carbohydrate, protein and phosphorus contents in the healthy husk reduced from 55.05%, 11.21% and 171.85 mg to 39.94%, 8.92% and 42.92 respectively in the infected sample whereas potassium and sodium contents in the healthy pod increased from 1.03 mg and 78.29 to 2.90 mg and 100.65 mg respectively in the infected husk. The potassium, sodium, magnesium and iron increased from 1292.25 mg, 0.19 mg, 0.09 mg and 11.00 mg in the healthy seeds to 1536.03 mg, 0.28 mg, 0.21 mg and 13.19 mg respectively in the infected seeds. The fungus caused the depletion of phosphorus from 498. 06 mg in the healthy to 430.17 mg in the infected seed, protein from 24.09% to 17.86%, carbohydrate from 57.02% to 34.35%, fat from 1.70% to 1.33% and crude fibre from 3.94% to 2.61%. The average loss of the major nutrient values; protein, carbohydrate and fat were 28.95%  and 22.55% for seed and husk respectively after 8 weeks of planting.