The effects of the Asteraceae family’s extracts on seed germination and growth

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of ethanol extracts from plants belonging to the Asteraceae family, including Ageratum conyzoides, Bidens pilosa L., Chromolaena odorata L., Cosmos bipinnatus and Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn on the germination and vegetative growth at 1, 5, 10 and 15 mg/ml concentrations. The results showed that the Asteraceae family extracts had the presence of allelochemical compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, saponins and coumarins. C. odorata L. and S. nodiflora (L.) Gaertn have the highest phenolic and flavonoid content of 367.16 mg GAE/g extract and 283.20 mg QE/g extract, respectively. At a 15 mg/ml concentration, all extracts
demonstrated the ability to inhibit 100% of germination and growth parameters of Lactuca sativa L. seeds. At a concentration of 15 mg/ml, A. conyzoides extracts significantly inhibited the germination criteria, root length, stem length, fresh weight, and dry weight of Raphanus sativus L. by 86.67; 88.5; 89.10; 92.32, and 95.74%, respectively. In general, the allelopathic activity of the extracts gradually increased with the concentration tested. The results demonstrate that A. conyzoides is the plant species with the best allelopathic ability among the 5 species of the Asteraceae family surveyed, so further research needs to be carried out to exploit the application potential extracted from this plant.