Allelopathic activity of some herb plant species. | [International Journal of Agriculture and Biology • 2013]

Author(s):

1. Tomio Itani: Department of Life Science, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Nanatsuka, Shobara, Japan

2. Yusaku Nakahata: Department of Life Science, Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Nanatsuka, Shobara, Japan

3. Hisashi Kato-Noguchi: Department of Applied Biological Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kagawa University, Miki, Kagawa, Japan

Abstract:

Some plant species have been used traditionally as herb because of their bioactive properties. These properties may allow for some of those herb plants to have allelopthic activity. Therefore, allelopathic activity of sixteen herbs was determined by sandwich method. All plants except for rosemary inhibited significantly lettuce root growth. Among them horseradish had the greatest inhibitory activity and completely inhibited the lettuce root growth. When lettuce seeds were grown on agar medium with living horseradish plants by plant-box method, the growth of lettuce roots was inhibited. The inhibition of lettuce roots was significantly correlated with the distance between horseradish and lettuce. The inhibition was the maximum at the nearest position from horseradish and the least at the far position from horseradish. Thus, some allelopathic substances may be secreted from horseradish, diffused in the medium and inhibited the lettuce root growth, although allelopathic substances have not yet determined. This research suggests that most herb plants have allelopathic activity and maximum activity was recorded by horseradish. Living horseradish may also secret unknown allelopathic substances into the medium. Thus, horseradish may be one of the promising candidates for the sources of novel biologically active compounds as well as candidates for intercropping crops and/or soil additive materials to control weeds in variety of agricultural settings.

Page(s): 1359-1362

DOI: DOI not available

Published: Journal: International Journal of Agriculture and Biology, Volume: 15, Issue: 6, Year: 2013

Keywords:

Keywords are not available for this article.

References:

References are not available for this document.

Citations

Citations are not available for this document.

Citations

Downloads

Views