Allopathic Effect of Conocarpus lancifolius Leaf Extract on Maize, Brassica, Wheat and Sorghum Growth Parameters
Uzair Ahmad Zia *
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus, Pakistan.
Ammara Farooq
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus, Pakistan.
Riyab Malik
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus, Pakistan.
Sana Riaz
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus, Pakistan.
Sehar Gul
Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Sargodha Campus, Pakistan.
Muhammad Furqan
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
Syed Sohail Ahmad
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Certain trees released different phytochemicals which is challenged for now modern agriculture to remove all these hazards chemicals which are dangerous for human health and environment. When allelopathy is used in renewable agriculture system it has both positive and negative effect. Allelopathic chemical extract can increase or decrease the productivity of various crops. At low amount of extract, it promotes the growth but at high amount, it suppresses the growth and reduce the productivity, these allelochemicals are released from plants which play an important role in our ecosystem. The responsible compounds may be phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids, amino acids and alkaloids. Conocarpus effect was determined during 2022 in vitro environment on cereal germination physiology. By applying the aqueous extract of Conocarpus to cereal crops, namely Brassica, Wheat, Maize and Sorghum at the rate of 10% (w/v) to check its allelopathic potential. In addition to the control 20 ml of dry leaf aqueous extract was applied at interval of 4 days each treatment. The data obtained after 25 days showed that the fresh weight (g) and dry weight (g) of each examined specie were significantly reduced as compared to the control experiment. Germination percentage, shoot length (cm), root length (cm), Number of leaves and days to germination are adversely affected by the application of Conocarpus aqueous extract instead of control experiment. These results indicate that the aqueous extract of Conocarpus has allelopathic potential. Hence there is a significant role of Conocarpus allelopathic effect on cereal crops.
Keywords: Allelopathic, conocarpus, phytochemicals, germination