Allelopathic Activity of Some Wild Population Plants by Dish Pack Method

Abstract

In this research we studied the allelopathic activity of 11wild population plants<br><br>belong to 8 families including (Proveskia abrotanoides, Chrozophora tinctoria, Euphorbia<br><br>petiolata, Gypsophila aretioides, Heliotropium europaeum, Leptarhabdus parviflora,<br><br>Euphorbia aellenii, Halimocnemis mollsissima, Karscheninnikovia ceratoides,<br><br>Calycanthus floridus and Zygophyllum fabago). The plant species were selected from<br><br>the North-east of Iran on the base of a preliminary survey and examined for their<br><br>allelopathic potentials. The assay method was dish pack using lettuce (Lactuca sativa<br><br>L. var Great lake 366) seed germination. The experimental design was Randomized<br><br>Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 3 replications. The results indicated<br><br>that 9 species out of 11 tested plant decline lettuce seedling growth (hypocotyle and<br><br>radicle) in comparison to control. The strongest inhibitory activity was detected<br><br>in Proveskia abrotanoides which decreased lettuce hypocoyle and radicle growth<br><br>significantly (95% and 94% respectively) but Leptarhabdus parviflora promoted<br><br>radicle growth of lettuce (24%). Proveskia abrotanoides might be useful as a natural<br><br>herbicide. Therefore, further researches need to be conducted on the detection of<br><br>main volatile constituents that are responsible for this strong allelopathic activity of<br><br>the mentioned plant by GC/MS and NMR techniques.