Abstract
The chemical profile and allelopathic effect of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by a dominant shrub Serphidium kaschgaricum (Krasch.) Poljak. growing in northwestern China was investigated for the first time. Serphidium kaschgaricu was found to release volatile compounds into the surroundings to affect other plants’ growth, with its VOCs suppressing root elongation of Amaranthus retroflexus L. and Poa annua L. by 65.47% and 60.37% at 10 g/1.5 L treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, volatile oils produced by stems, leaves, flowers and flowering shoots exhibited phytotoxic activity against A. retroflexus and P. annua. At 0.5 mg/mL, stem, leaf and flower oils significantly reduced seedling growth of the receiver plants, and 1.5 mg/mL oils nearly completely prohibited seed germination of both species. GC/MS analysis revealed that among the total 37 identified compounds in the oils, 19 of them were common, with eucalyptol (43.00%, 36.66%, 19.52%, and 38.68% in stem, leaf, flower and flowering shoot oils, respectively) and camphor (21.55%, 24.91%, 21.64%, and 23.35%, respectively) consistently being the dominant constituents in all oils. Eucalyptol, camphor and their mixture exhibited much weaker phytotoxicity compared with the volatile oils, implying that less abundant compounds in the volatile oil might contribute significantly to the oils’ activity. Our results suggested that S. kaschgaricum was capable of synthesizing and releasing allelopathic volatile compounds into the surroundings to affect neighboring plants’ growth, which might improve its competitiveness thus facilitate the establishment of dominance.
Highlights
The allelopathic effect of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released by S. kaschgaricum was investigated against
At the lowest treatment (2 g/1.5 L), VOCs released by S. kaschgaricum started to inhibit seedling growth significantly, reducing root elongation by 25.11% and 26.31% for A. retroflexus and P. anuua, respectively
Our results showed that S. kaschgaricum volatile oils produced by different plant and their major constituents possessed significant phytotoxic activity against receiver parts and their major constituents possessed significant phytotoxic activity against receiver plants, and their strength was compared by calculating their IC50 values (Table 2)
Summary
(Compositae) comprises approximately 130 species that mainly distributes in continental Asia, Europe, North America and North Africa [1]. This genus contains all life forms except trees: annual, biennial, perennial herbs, subshrubs and shrubs, some large in stature [2]. Is a subshrub herb that widely distributes in the arid and semiarid regions as a dominant species [3]. Several members of this genus are used in folk medicine as antihelminthics [4]. Seriphidium plants are able to produce volatiles with strong aroma, which is suspected to serve as allelopathic agents to suppress neighboring plants and favor their own growth [9]
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