Allelopathic effects of medicinal plant madder (Rubia tinctorum) on germination characteristics and seedling growth of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), corn (Zea mays), field bindweed (Convolvolus arvense) and Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense)

Subject Areas : Plant Protection

Ruhollah NADERI ¹ , Abbas YAZDANI ² , Yahya EMAM ³ , Ehsan BIJANZADEH ⁴

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Received: 2013-12-17 Accepted : 2015-08-17 Published : 2014-05-29

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Abstract :

Excessive use of chemical herbicides has resulted to many problems such as adverse environmental impacts, contamination of groundwater and resistant weeds. Therefore, researchers are looking for solutions to reduce the use of herbicides as more as possible. One effective approach is to use the characteristics of allelopathic plants. To evaluate the allelopathic effects of extracts of madder on seed germination of several crops (corn and sorghum) and weeds (Johnsongrass and field bindweed), four separate laboratory experiments were conducted in 2011 at Yazd University of Applied Science. The experimental design was a completely randomized with 4 replications and 5 treatments. Treatments were madder extract at 5 levels (zero, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, respectively). The results showed that the extract of madder could decrease traits such as germination percentage and germination rate, root and shoot length, root to shoot ratio (R / S), seedling vigor index and total dry weight of all plants significantly (p <0.5).Germination percentage of corn and sorghum seeds were not significantly affected up to concentration of 50% and 75% of madder extract, however, germination of weed seeds showed a significant reduction at even lower rates of 25% concentration of madder extract. In general, at concentration of 25 %, germination percentage of filed bindweed and Johnson grass decreased 97 and 95.5 % compared to corn and 96 and 94 % compared to sorghum. Although the extract of madder caused a significant decrease in the rate of germination, root and shoot length, root to shoot ratio, seed vigor index and total dry weight of both crops and weeds, it was found that weeds were more susceptible to madder extract than crops. Results indicated that madder, as a useful medicinal plant, may contain allelochemicals that suppress Johnson grass and field bindweed seedlings growth and could be beneficial for weed control in corn and sorghum crops

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