# Antifungal Activity of Quaternary Pyridinium Salts Against _Fusarium culmorum_ in Wheat Seedlings
## 3 Results
### The Effect of Isonicotinamide Derivatives on the Fresh and Lyophilized Root Mass of Wheat Seedlings  
As shown in Figure 7, all tested isonicotinamide derivatives significantly increased the fresh root mass in wheat seedlings compared to the control treatment (sterile grain). However, all tested compounds had a statistically significantly lower influence on fresh root mass than the fungicide treatment. When comparing the effects of each compound on fresh root mass, compounds **(6)** and **(8)** at a 100 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL concentration showed statistically similar values. These were significantly lower than the values observed for compound **(9)** at 100 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL and compound **(6a)** at 10 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL, both of which resulted in significantly higher fresh root mass. Figure 6: The effect of nicotinamide derivatives on the shoot and root length. The columns (shoot length) and lines (root length) represent the mean of three replicates per treatment. Error bars represent the standard error (SE) of the mean. Differences between treatment means are indicated by different letters according to the Tukey HSD test (\(p\leq 0.05\)). Labels: **(1)**, **(3)**, **(4)**, **(5)**—compounds at a 100 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL concentration; **(2a)**, **(3a)**—compounds at a 10 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL concentration. Small letters indicate differences in shoot length, and capital letters indicate differences in root length. Figure 7: The effect of isonicotinamide derivatives on the fresh and lyophilized root mass of shoots. The columns (fresh root mass) and lines (lyophilized root mass) represent the mean of three replicates per treatment. Error bars represent the standard error (SE) of the mean. Differences between treatment means are indicated by different letters according to the Tukey HSD test (\(p\leq 0.05\)). Labels: **(6)**, **(7)**, **(8)**, **(9)**—compounds at a 100 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL concentration; **(6a)**, **(9a)**—compounds at a 10 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro g}\)/mL concentration. Small letters indicate differences in fresh root mass, and capital letters indicate differences in lyophilized root mass. A comparison with the control treatment (sterile grain) showed that only compounds **(6)** and **(7)** at 100 \(\upmu\)g/mL resulted in a statistically significant increase in lyophilized root mass. In contrast, the lyophilized root mass in all isonicotinamide-treated seedlings was significantly lower than that in the fungicide treatment. When comparing the effects of different isonicotinamide derivatives on lyophilized root mass, most compounds resulted in statistically similar values. However, compound **(7)** showed significantly higher lyophilized root mass than compounds **(6a)**, **(9)**, and **(9a)**, which had significantly lower values, comparable only to the sterile grain control (Figure 7). The Effect of Isonicotinamide Derivatives on the Fresh and lyophilized Shoot Mass of Wheat Se seedlings  
Figure 8 shows that applying isonicotinamide derivatives showed that most tested compounds significantly increased the fresh shoot mass in wheat seedlings compared to the control (sterile grain). Exceptions were compounds **(6)** and **(8)** at a 100 \(\upmu\)g/mL concentration, where no significant difference was observed compared to the control. All tested compounds, except compound **(9)**, resulted in significantly lower shoot fresh mass than the fungicide treatment. All tested compounds significantly increased the lyophilized shoot mass compared to the control (sterile grain). However, lyophilized shoot mass remained significantly lower for all isonicotinamide treatments than for the fungicide treatment. The only exception was compound **(7)** at 100 \(\upmu\)g/mL, which resulted in a significantly higher lyophilized shoot mass than the other isonicotinamide derivatives.