Abstract
Parthenium hysterophorus is a weed of global concern with high threshold of tolerance against most of biotic and abiotic stresses. Phytochemical profile and in vitro antioxidant analysis may help in understanding its tolerance to stresses. Root, stem, leaf, phyllary, and receptacle (including disc and ray florets) were chemotyped employing GC tof-MS and assessed for antioxidant activity by DPPH, FRAP, HRSA, and TAC assays. Phytochemicals identified were terpenes, fatty acids, hydrocarbons, phytosterols, and compounds of miscellaneous chemical nature. Organ-specific maximum concentration of metabolite was β-vatirenene (root), hexadecanoic acid methylester (stem), aristolene epoxide (leaf), hexadecanoic acid methylester (phyllary), and hexadecanoic acid methylester (receptacle). Identified metabolites could be associated with stress tolerance mechanisms, basic metabolism, and allelopathy, etc. Root extracts showed highest antioxidant potential followed by receptacle. It can be concluded that diverse and unique phytochemical profile and great antioxidant potential make P. hysterophorus stress-tolerant, hence a weed of global habitat.
Highlights
Parthenium hysterophorus (Congress grass or Gajar Ghaas, a member of Asteraceae) occur throughout the global agricultural and vacant lands [1] including arid zones
Seeds (Supplementary Figure S2) from authenticated Parthenium hysterophorus were obtained from the field of Jamia Millia Islamia (Latitude 28.6∘ 4’N and Longitude 77.2∘), New Delhi, India growing in the alluvial soil
Phytochemical profiles of Parthenium hysterophorus root, stem, leaves, phyllary, and receptacle were resolved employing Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) (Supplementary Table 1)
Summary
Parthenium hysterophorus (Congress grass or Gajar Ghaas, a member of Asteraceae) occur throughout the global agricultural and vacant lands [1] including arid zones. It has high level of threshold to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses and capable of biosynthesizing novel secondary metabolites including antioxidants and bioactive allelopathic chemicals for their own defense [7,8,9]. All these special features enable P. hysterophorus to grow well in varied habitats and under harsh and extreme ecological conditions, making it a weed of global occurrence (Supplementary Figure S1) [10]. This study was aimed at GC-MS chemotyping and antioxidant activity of different parts of Parthenium hysterophorus
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