Biostimulatory and antimicrobial properties of Tulbaghia violacea

Abstract

My first gratitude and praise to Almighty God, the Life-giver, who let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds (Genesis 1:11) and has caused to grow out of the ground, herbs for the use of man. What is impossible with man is possible with God. I would like to acknowledge the financial assistance to me provided by the government of Lesotho through National Manpower Development secretariat, for the payment of tuition, boarding and lodging and other academic fees. Your sponsorship was not in vain. My deepest gratitude and sincere appreciation are extended to Professor J.C. Pretorius, promoter of this research, for his patient and untiring guidance. His kindness, academic vision and inexhaustible energy were an inspiration and motivation to me in this study. Without him the objectives of this research would not have been achieved. His demand and desire for perfection and academic excellence have left an indelible impression on my mind and I hope to pass them on to my students. I have really been honoured to have been his student. My gratitude also goes to my co-promoter Dr. Potgieter for his expertise in seed physiology (seed germination and seedling establishment) and different aspects important to plant growth and development and the effect of natural “bio-catalysts” on plant growth and yield. Next I would like to thank Dr. Irene Kamara for her assistance with nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy analysis and chemical structural elucidation of the active compounds. Her contribution to this section is also highly appreciated. Your patient smile will always be remembered. I would also like to recognize and thank the following people for their dedication and support for the success of this research: Elmarie van der Watt for her kind and patient laboratory technical guidance and support throughout the three years of this study. Please don’t get tired of doing the good. Your assistance was highly valued. I also extend my appreciation and gratitude to Charlotte Maree for her laboratory assistance with respect to the antimicrobial tests of this research. I am most grateful to Alida Du Plessis for her ever-ready secretarial assistance during this research. The Head of organic chemistry department and staff for allowing me to use their laboratory during the purification and isolation phase of my plant extract. Special thanks to ‘Madira Litelu and Tebogo Manong for their daily technical guidance and help in the laboratory. Without Tebogo, the finer details of the isolation techniques would have escaped my notice. I wish to express my appreciation to my colleague in this study Girma Tegegne, for his contribution to chapter 5 and his assistance with the statistical analysis of my data, and with whom we shared a lot of hardships, disappointments and successes, and also for the brainstorming sessions we held together on this research. Finally, to my late Brother Ben Nteso for his initial financial support, if it had not been for him I would not have registered for this degree. We hope to meet him at the first resurrection.