Exploiting the Allelopathic Potential of Aqueous Leaf Extracts of Artemisia absinthium and Psidium guajava against Parthenium hysterophorus, a Widespread Weed in India
by
Dhriti Kapoor 1,†, Rinzim 1,†, Anupam Tiwari 1, Amit Sehgal 1, Marco Landi 2,*
, Marian Brestic 3,4 and 
Anket Sharma 5,*
Dhriti Kapoor 1,†, Rinzim 1,†, Anupam Tiwari 1, Amit Sehgal 1, Marco Landi 2,*, Marian Brestic 3,4 and Anket Sharma 5,*
1
School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Delhi-Jalandhar Highway Phagwara, Punjab 144411, India
2
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
3
Department of Plant Physiology, Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources, Slovak University of Agriculture, 94976 Nitra, Slovakia
4
Department of Botany and Plant Physiology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic
5
State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou 311300, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Plants 2019, 8(12), 552; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8120552
Received: 4 November 2019 / Revised: 23 November 2019 / Accepted: 26 November 2019 / Published: 28 November 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Secondary Metabolites and Eco-friendly Techniques for Agricultural Weed/Pest Management)
Artemisia absinthium and Psidium guajava are powerful sources of secondary metabolites, some of them with potential allelopathic activity. Both the species grow together in India with a weed (Parthenium hysterophorus) that is becoming extremely invasive. The aim of the present research was to test the allelopathic effect of A. absinthium and P. guajava aqueous leaf extracts on seed germination, seedling growth (shoot and root length), as well as some biochemical parameters (enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes, and malondialdehyde by-products) of P. hysterophorus plants. Leaf extracts of both A. absinthium and P. guajava constrained the germination and seedling development (root and shoot length), affected pigment content (chlorophylls, carotenoids), stimulated the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and increased the level of malondialdehyde by-products of P. hysterophorus plants. Non-enzymatic antioxidants (glutathione and ascorbic acid) in P. hysterophorus leaves were, conversely, negatively affected by both leaf extracts tested in the present experiment. Although A. absinthium was more effective than P. guajava in impacting some biochemical parameters of P. hysterophorus leaves (including a higher EC50 for seed germination), P. guajava extract showed a higher EC50 in terms of root inhibition of P. hysterophorus seedlings. The present study provides the evidence that A. absinthium and P. guajava extract could be proficiently exploited as a botanical herbicide against P. hysterophorus.
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Keywords:
allelopathy; botanical herbicide; bio-herbicide; invasive plants; weeds; weed control
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kapoor, D.; Rinzim; Tiwari, A.; Sehgal, A.; Landi, M.; Brestic, M.; Sharma, A. Exploiting the Allelopathic Potential of Aqueous Leaf Extracts of Artemisia absinthium and Psidium guajava against Parthenium hysterophorus, a Widespread Weed in India. Plants 2019, 8, 552.
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