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Allelopathic effect by
aqueous extracts of different parts of Croton
bonplandianum Baill. on some crop and weed plants
Swapnal Sisodia* and M. Badruzzaman Siddiqui
Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-20
2002, India.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
swapnal81@hotmail.com,
b.siddiqui@rediffmail.com.
Accepted
20 October, 2009 |
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The present study was conducted to investigate the
allelopathic effects of Croton bonplandianum weed on
seed germination and seedling growth of crop plants (Triticum
aestivum L., Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
L. and Brassica rapa L.) and weed plants (Melilotus
alba Medik., Vicia sativa L. and
Medicago hispida Gaertn). Root, stem and leaf aqueous
extracts of Croton at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0%
concentrations were applied to determine their effect on
seed germination and seedling growth of test plants under
laboratory conditions. The aqueous extracts from root, stem
and leaf had no effect on seed germination of test plants.
The extracts from stem had a stimulatory effect on the shoot
length at all concentration levels, as against an inhibitory
effect of leaf extracts. Stem extracts at low concentration
generally promoted root length but aqueous extracts from
leaf and root inhibited root length and dry weight. Root
length, shoot length of weed species decreased progressively
when plants were exposed to increasing concentration (0.5,
1, 2 and 4%). The pH, osmotic potential and total phenolic
contents, the osmotic potential and phenolic content
increased with increasing concentrations of aqueous extracts
of different parts of C. bonplandianum while pH does
not have any major change.
Key
words:
Allelopathy, aqueous leaf extract, aqueous stem extract,
aqueous root extract, Melilotus alba, Medicago hispida,
Vicia sativa, Croton bonplandianum. |
