Obnoxious Weed Research Articles

Menthalactone from Mentha piperita L., a Monocot-Selective Bioherbicide

The challenge of managing invasive weed species continues to affect the agricultural industry, presenting ecological, economic, and agronomic hurdles that lead to over 100 billion USD in annual crop losses globally. One such concern is the management of Agrostis stolonifera L., commonly known as creeping bentgrass, particularly due to its ability to form hybrids. This scenario underscores the urgent need for innovative, effective, and environmentally sustainable herbicides, steering the focus toward natural substances as potential candidates. We report here a promising natural lactone, commonly known as menthalactone, which is derived from Mentha piperita L. Its phytotoxic activity was assessed against the monocot, bentgrass, and a dicot, lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Menthalactone displayed outstanding activity against bentgrass and was further evaluated for phytotoxic characteristics. The germination of A. stolonifera seeds was significantly inhibited with an IC50 value of 4.9 ± 1.2 µM. In contrast to bentgrass seeds, Lemna pausicostata L. plants were less responsive to menthalactone treatment, shown by an IC50 of 293.4 ± 70.6 µM. Both species are monocots, and the results suggest that menthalactone might have effects on seed germination but not on the metabolism of green tissues. The susceptibility of three common, obnoxious weed species, i.e., ryegrass (Lilium perenne), barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv.), and crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.), to menthalactone was assessed. Menthalactone at 1000 µM completely inhibited the germination of all three species of grasses, while 330 µM inhibited germination by less than 50%. The post-emergence application of menthalactone at 1% did not produce a significant inhibitory effect against ryegrass, barnyard grass, or crabgrass.

Management of an obnoxious weed Parthenium hysterophorus through composting: a contrivance for recycling the nutrients

Management of an obnoxious weed Parthenium hysterophorus through composting: a contrivance for recycling the nutrients

Genus Vernonia - Mini Review

Vernonia is one of the largest taxa under Asteraceae family with approximately 1000 species. This taxon is commonly distributed in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America. Vernonia speciesare widely used as leafy vegetables especially in some of the African countries. Some species of Vernonia has been used in traditional medicines to treat variety of ailments. In many countries, including India this plan has turned up into obnoxious weed. Species of Vernonia consists of phytochemicals such as fats, proteins, fats, amino acids, minerals, fibres, vitamins, and carbohydrates. Keywords: Genus Vernonia, Asteraceae, Morphology and ethnomedical applications.

Seasonal Pollinosis Due to Kans Grass Pollen: Prevalence and Immune-Biochemical Approach

Background: It has been recognized from the early days of allergology that aerobiological investigations have an important role to play in the development of respiratory allergic diseases. An increasing number of allergic complaints occurred among the atopic population during the blooming season of Kans grass, Saccharum spontaneum (SS), an obnoxious weed growing in and around suburban West Bengal. The present study aimed to identify SS pollen as a potential aero allergen through aerobiological, clinical, statistical, and biochemical analyses. Methods: An aerobiological survey was conducted for 2 years followed by a clinical diagnosis of 134 local atopic patients suffering from a respiratory allergy by a standard questionnaire survey and the skin prick test (SPT) using SS antigens. The antigenic protein profile was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and the allergizing potential of this pollen was investigated by an in vitro enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to recognize the presence of the sero-reactive proteins which were the suspected cause of the respiratory allergy. A Box-plot and regression analysis were performed to establish the significance of clinical data. Results: SS pollen was found to evoke about 70.14% sensitivity among the atopic population causing early spring hay fever, allergic rhinitis, and seasonal allergic conjunctivitis. A regression analysis for the pollen antigen for estimating the total IgE value of a patient’s sera from their specific IgE value was a novel approach by our study. The antigenic extract of pollen resolved into more than 15 distinct protein bands ranging from 14.4 to 116 kDa, some of which were found to be glycosylated. The results showed that SS pollen has a significant presence in the atmosphere, which may trigger an allergic response in immunocompromised patients. Conclusions: This is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to identify allergens from Kans pollen causing seasonal pollinosis among the Indian atopic population using an immuno-clinical approach.

Biological Control Strategies of Purple Witchweed, Striga hermonthica: A Review

The genus of Striga spp., particularly Striga hermonthica, is an obligate root-hemiparasitic weed. Striga affects 25 African countries annually and is considered a major biotic threat to food security. This obnoxious weed species has been managed using various control strategies. However, the strategies have not been highly effective due to the complexity of the Striga life cycle and special interactions with its host. Biological control, considered a safer and ‘greener’ alternative, has drawn attention due to numerous reports on the potential of biological agents, including insects and microorganisms, to control Striga. Although researchers agree on the importance of the biocontrol approach as one of the alternative eco-friendly methods to manage Striga spp., the decreasing effectiveness of some biocontrol agents when introduced into new environments, in addition to requirements before and during the application, restricts the application of biological control on a large scale until today. This review focuses on the current knowledge of control strategies to manage Striga, emphasizing the biological control method. The challenges that limit the application of biological control to manage Striga on a broader scale are also highlighted.

Parthenium Poisonous effect and its Treatment

Parthenium (Partheniumhysterophorus L.) is a weed that produces many seeds and has spread widely rapid growth, ability to spread via waterways and roadways , it is able to spread very quickly Parthenium was spread by vehicles or as a contaminant of seeds. It act as environmental, medical and agricultural hazards. They are also allergenic with pollen causing dermatitis and hay fever in human in livestock from prolonged feeding on parthenium, and milk and meat are tainted affecting their value. This weed is thought to cause allergic respiratory problems, mutagenicity in humans and severe reductions in crop production1. Sesquiterpene lactones (SQLs) are the most important allergens responsible for ACD of parthenium. This plant is not only harmful to agriculture but also is a major factor in multiple human diseases through contagious. Among these are asthma, Allergies, and Stomach diseases. It is used as an antioxidant, an anticancer agent, and an antitumor agent, and its extracts are often used pesticides to control diseases. Parthenium it has some toxic chemical composition due this it exhibits many harmful adverse effects but owing to many limitations associated with the conventional methods, management of parthenium still remains a challenge. Parthenium is considered as the number one dangerous terrestrial weed because of its harmful effects both to human and biodiversity. Many control measures are being used to manage this obnoxious weed. It has both useful effect and non useful effect.

Allelopathic effect of weed extracts on seed germination of finger millet

Finger millet is a nutritious food grain crop with a fair amount of minerals like calcium and iron. Present investigation deals with the allelopathic effect of Parthenium hysterophorus and Lantana camara on germination and seedling vigour in finger millet. Seeds of the finger millet were subjected to different concentrations of leaf aqueous extracts of Parthenium hysterophorus and Lantana camara (4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 25%, 50% and 75%) to find out allelopathic effects on Total germination percentage (GT), Plant height stress tolerance index (PHSI), Root length stress tolerance index (RLSI), Peak value (PV), Germination value (GV). Experimental results revealed that leaf extract of Parthenium showed profound allelopathic effect on seeds of the finger millet over to Lantana camera. The present study helps farmers to be aware with the lethal allelopathic effect of obnoxious weeds like Parthenium and Lantana.

Parthenium hysterophorus's Endophytes: The Second Layer of Defense against Biotic and Abiotic Stresses.

Parthenium hysterophorus L. is considered an obnoxious weed due to its rapid dispersal, fast multiplications, and agricultural and health hazards. In addition to its physio-molecular and phytotoxic allelochemical usage, this weed most probably uses endophytic flora as an additional line of defense to deal with stressful conditions and tolerate both biotic and abiotic stresses. The aim of this article is to report the diversity of endophytic flora (fungi and bacteria) in P. hysterophorus and their role in the stress mitigation (biotic and abiotic) of other important crops. Various endophytes were reported from P. hysterophorus and their roles in crops evaluated under biotic and abiotic stressed conditions. These endophytes have the potential to alleviate different stresses by improving crops/plants growth, development, biomass, and photosynthetic and other physiological traits. The beneficial role of the endophytes may be attributed to stress-modulating enzymes such as the antioxidants SOD, POD and APX and ACC deaminases. Additionally, the higher production of different classes of bioactive secondary metabolites, i.e., flavonoids, proline, and glutathione may also overcome tissue damage to plants under stressed conditions. Interestingly, a number of medicinally important phytochemicals such as anhydropseudo-phlegmcin-9, 10-quinone-3-amino-8-O methyl ether 'anhydropseudophlegmacin-9, 10-quinone-3-amino-8-Omethyl ether were reported from the endophytic flora of P. hysterophorus. Moreover, various reports revealed that fungal and bacterial endophytes of P. hysterophorus enhance plant growth-promoting attributes and could be added to the consortium of biofertilizers.

Biological treatment of Climbing Hempweed biomass through optimized composting technologies - Toxicity assessment and morphological study of Abelmoschus esculentus.

Climbing Hempweed (CH) is one of the top ten most obnoxious weeds on the planet, as well as one of the most destructive weeds. Its disastrous spread on the agricultural field has hampered the production of a wide range of crops. Various management techniques have been used to eradicate the weed, but none have been completely successful. As a result, management through the use of weed biomass will aid in the eradication of the weed as well as the production of a value-added product. To utilize invasive weed CH for the production of rotary drum compost (R1) and rotary drum followed by vermicompost (V1), two composting technologies were used. These technologies are being compared on several physicochemical parameters to determine their efficacy. V1 compost had the highest total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) (3.01%), potassium (3.45%), and total phosphorus (16.42g/kg) levels, while R1 compost had 2.58% TKN, 2.8% potassium, and 14.25g/kg total phosphorus. Subsequently, the increasing trends in mitotic index (%) of R1 and V1 samples imply that the cytotoxic effects of CH were decreased due to composting and vermicomposting processes. Genotoxicity assessment revealed that an aberration percentage of 1.64 was observed in 100% concentration of V1 (after 30 days) and 4.34% in R1(after 20 days). R1 and V1 were used to evaluate the performance of Abelmoschus esculentus where the highest fruit harvest was seen at 25% amended R1 compost and 35% amended V1 compost. The application of 25-35% R1 compost and 35-40% V1 compost was found to be the most beneficial for the development of Abelmoschus esculentus. There was no significant difference in heavy metal (Mn, Fe, Cu, Co, and Zn) content in the fruit of Abelmoschus esculentus post-application of R1 and V1 compost.

Long-term tillage and weed management effects on weed shifts, phytosociology and crops productivity

The understanding of the diverse weed flora composition and weed shift in conservation agriculture production system is important to identify weed management component to increase agro-ecosystem sustainability. Hence, in this study, different tillage and weed management practices were assessed to evaluate their impact on diverse weed flora composition and shift in maize-wheat cropping system in North Western Himalaya from 2018-20 in an ongoing longterm experiment being conducted since 2013. Fifteen treatment combinations comprising of five tillage treatments, viz. conventional tillage (CT) in maize-CT in wheat; CT-zero tillage (ZT); ZT-ZT; ZT-zero tillage in combination with residue retention (ZTR) and ZTR-ZTR and three weed management treatments, viz. recommended herbicide (H) in maize-recommended herbicide (H) in wheat; integrated weed management (IWM)-IWM and hand weeding (HW)-HW were evaluated in a strip plot design. In CT, annual weed species were dominant, whereas, perennial weeds dominated in zero tillage (ZT). A shift in weed species with greater dominance of monocots and a marginal decrease in dicots was observed. Parthenium hysterophorus, an obnoxious weed, was observed in the experimental field in maize only during 2018. The monocot weed (Echinochloa colona) had higher relative density (RD), relative abundance (RA), relative frequency (RF) and important value index (IVI) compared to the dicot weeds in maize crop. In Rabi (winter) season, Avena ludoviciana (monocot grass) had higher RD, RF and IVI values, while, Daucus carota (perennial weed) had higher RA when compared to the other annual and biennial weeds. The grain yield of main and intercrop and system productivity were higher in conservation agriculture-based production systems in combination with recommended herbicide (ZTR+H-ZTR+H) in maize-wheat based cropping systems.

Seed germination ecology of Conyza sumatrensis populations stemming from different habitats and implications for management.

Conyza sumatrensis (Retz.) E. H. Walker is an obnoxious weed, emerging as an invasive species globally. Seed germination biology of four populations of the species stemming from arid, semi-arid, temperate, and humid regions was determined in this study. Seed germination was recorded under six different environmental cues (i.e., light/dark periods, constant and alternating day and night temperatures, pH, salinity, and osmotic potential levels) in separate experiment for each cue. Populations were main factor, whereas levels of each environmental cue were considered as sub-factor. The impact of seed burial depths on seedling emergence was inferred in a greenhouse pot experiment. Seed germination was recorded daily and four germination indices, i.e., seed germination percentage, mean germination time, time to reach 50% germination, and mean daily germination were computed. Tested populations and levels of different environmental cues had significant impact on various seed germination indices. Overall, seeds stemming from arid and semi-arid regions had higher seed germination potential under stressful and benign environmental conditions compared to temperate and humid populations. Seed of all populations required a definite light period for germination and 12 hours alternating light and dark period resulted in the highest seed germination. Seed germination of all populations occurred under 5–30°C constant and all tested alternate day and night temperatures. However, the highest seed germination was recorded under 20°C. Seeds of arid and semi-arid populations exhibited higher germination under increased temperature, salinity and osmotic potential levels indicating that maternal environment strongly affected germination traits of the tested populations. The highest seed germination of the tested populations was noted under neutral pH, while higher and lower pH than neutral had negative impact on seed germination. Arid and semi-arid populations exhibited higher seed germination under increased pH compared to temperate and humid populations. Seed burial depth had a significant effect on the seedling emergence of all tested populations. An initial increase was noted in seedling emergence percentage with increasing soil depth. However, a steep decline was recorded after 2 cm seed burial depth. These results indicate that maternal environment strongly mediates germination traits of different populations. Lower emergence from >4 cm seed burial depth warrants that deep burial of seeds and subsequent zero or minimum soil disturbance could aid the management of the species in agricultural habitats. However, management strategies should be developed for other habitats to halt the spread of the species.

Green Preservation of Goatskin to Deplete Chloride from Tannery Wastewater

Globally, in wet-salting preservation, common salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is generally practiced for the raw animal skin which emits a huge amount of chloride-containing wastewater affecting groundwater quality, human and plant life. Chlorides in tannery wastewater encourage salt-free or less-salt preservation methods of raw skin. In this study, an alternative salt-free ‘green method’ has been described for goatskin preservation with rapidly growing obnoxious weeds Sphagneticola trilobata leaf. The ‘green leaf paste’ was applied on the flesh side of the raw goatskin and compared with conventional wet-salting (50% NaCl) method for 28 days. Different parameters of both sample like moisture, nitrogen, hydrothermal stability, and bacterial growth were periodically assessed and compared. Shoe upper leather was produced from both preserved goatskins. After comparing with standards, the physical properties like tensile strength, elongation at break, bursting strength satisfied the standard requirements. SEM images showed no deterioration to the fiber structure of both samples. Moreover, the suggested method reduces the pollution loads: chloride, total dissolved solids, biochemical oxygen demand, and chemical oxygen demand by 98.04%, 92.9%, 90.2%, and 85.5%, respectively. The overall assessment recommends that the salt-free ‘green method’ utilizing S. trilobata leaf paste could be an attractive system over the conventional wet-salting method. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-02-03 Full Text: PDF

A strategy to decrease vectorial competence of dengue mosquito Aedes aegypti by alteration of its gut microbiota using Indian traditional medicinal plants

In the present study, the sensitivity of the gut microbes of dengue fever mosquito Aedes aegypti to Indian traditional medicinal plants was evaluated. The microbes were isolated from the midgut of laboratory-reared fourth instar larvae of Ae. aegypti and grown on Luria-Bertini agar plates at an optimum temperature of 27oC. The microbial colonies were differentiated based on their characteristics such as size, shape, opacity, elevation, consistency, and rate of growth. The axenic culture of different strains was obtained by streaking method. Ten different types of microbial clones were identified up to species level using Biolog’s advanced phenotypic technology. Five Indian traditional plants: Ocimum sanctum, Azadirachta indica, Catharanthus roseus, Curcuma longa, and Syzygium aromaticum and an invasive obnoxious weed Lantana camara were used in the present study. The extracts of the specific parts of individual plants were prepared in ethanol and hexane using ‘Soxhlet apparatus’. The extracts were screened for their antimicrobial activities by disc diffusion assay. The results indicate that the plants used in the present study possessed antimicrobial activities against gut microbes of Ae. aegypti. However, the sensitivity of different microbes to the extracts varied. The zone of inhibition observed after 24 h of incubation revealed that ethanol extract of A. indica has the most potent antibacterial activity; followed by that of S. aromaticum, C. longa and O. sanctum. L. camara and C. roseus were least effective against gut microbes of Ae. aegypti.

LC-MS untargeted metabolomics assesses the delayed response of glufosinate treatment of transgenic glufosinate resistant (GR) buffalo grasses (Stenotaphrum secundatum L.).

Glufosinate resistant (GR) buffalo grasses were genetically modified to resist the broad-spectrum herbicide, glufosinate by inserting a novel pat gene into its genome. This modification results in a production of additional phosphinothricin acetyltransferase (PAT) to detoxify the deleterious effects of glufosinate. The GR grasses and its associated herbicide form a modern, weeding program,to eradicate obnoxious weeds in turf lawn without damaging the grasses at relatively low costs and labor. As with several principal crops which are genetically modified to improve agricultural traits, biosafety of the GR buffalo grasses is inevitably expected to become a public concern. For the first time, we had previously examined the metabolome of glufosinate-resistant buffalo grasses, using a GC-MS untargeted approach to assess the risk of GR as well as identify any pleotropic effects arising from the genetically modification process. In this paper, an untargeted high-resolution LC-MS (LC-HRMS) untargeted metabolomics approach was carried out to complement our previous findings with respect to GR and wild type (WT) buffalo grasses. One of the major aims of this present work was to compare GR to WT buffalo grasses by including the detection of the secondary metabolome and determine any unprecedented metabolic changes. Eight-week old plants of 4 GR buffalo grasses, (93-1A, 93-2B, 93-3C and 93-5A) and 3 wild type varieties (WT 8-4A, WT 9-1B and WT 9-1B) were submerged in either 5 % v/v of glufosinate or distilled water 3 days prior to a LC-HRMS based untargeted metabolomics analysis (glufosinate-treated or control, samples, respectively). An Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) system coupled to a Velos Pro Orbitrap mass spectrometer system was employed to holistically measure the primary and secondary metabolome of both GR and WT buffalo grasses either treated with or without glufosinate and subsequently apply several bioinformatic tools including the automated pathway analysis algorithm, mummichog. LC-HRMS untargeted based metabolomics clearly identified that the global metabolite pools of both GR and WT cultivars were highly similar, providing strong, supporting evidence of substantial equivalencebetween the GR and WT varieties. These findings indicate that if any associated risks to these GR grasses were somehow present, the risk would be within those acceptable ranges present in the WT. Additionally, mummichog-based pathway analysis indicated that phenylalanine metabolism and the TCA cycle were significantly impacted by glufosinate treatment in the WT cultivar. It was possible that alterations in the relative concentrations of several intermediates in these pathways were likely due to glufosinate-induced production of secondary metabolites to enhance plant defense mechanisms against herbicidal stress at the expense of primary metabolism. GR buffalo grasses were found to be near identical to its WT comparator based on this complementary LC-HRMS based untargeted metabolomics. Therefore, these results further support the safe use of these GR buffalo grasses with substantial evidence. Interestingly, despite protected by PAT, GR buffalo grasses still demonstrated the response to glufosinate treatment by up-regulating some secondary metabolite-related pathways.

OBNOXIOUS PLANTS AND WEEDS OF DISTRICT LAKHIMPUR KHERI AND IN ADJACENT AREAS OF U.P. INDIA

In this present study, the paper innumerate 101 Obnoxious Angiospermic plants those are growing in District Lakhimpur Kheri and the adjacent areas. In this survey total district area was studied and collected the information of the Obnoxious Angiospermic plants that are grown, wild, planted, cultivated & naturalized of road sides, park avenues and gardens in the area. Since a great change has been seen within last 05 years in the wild and cultivated species. That there are some plants those not eaten by animals. Therefore, there is a great need for a complete study conducted on the obnoxious plants. The plants were identified with the help of different published flora and herbarium lodged in different places of India. A survey of Obnoxious plants and Weeds was conducted for 5 year (2010-2015), during the study period it has been put in mind that no place should be missed because every and each place is highly valuable and important to collect and record new plant species. The progressive and repeated Botanical survey in understanding of the flora of a region gives an uptodate information about plants growing in that area. The critical review of a literature reveals that the work on an Angiospermic flora covering district Lakhimpur Kheri was under taken by various workers in the past viz. Hooker (1872-1879), Duthei (1903-1929). But the survey was on all type of Angiospermic plants. Now it has been taken in mind that how many Obnoxious plants are growing in Lakhimpur Kheri district and adjacent areas.

Earias vittella management by utilizing obnoxious weeds extracts of Jammu and Kashmir Himalayas, India

All the three agro-ecological zones (sub-tropical, intermediate and temperate) of the Jammu province were surveyed for potential pesticidal plants. Methanol extracts of all the thirteen plants / plant parts and fractions were assessed for insecticidal activity. Eight treatments (T3 –Boerhavia diffusa stem methanolic extract, T6 –Boerhavia diffusa roots methanolic extract, T7 –Boerhavia diffusa roots hexane fraction, T12 –Arisaema flavum stem + leaves methanol extract, T13 –Arisaema flavum stem + leaves hexane fraction, T14 –Arisaema flavum stem + leaves acetone fraction, T15 –Arisaema flavum roots / tubers methanol extract and T17 –Arisaema flavum roots / tubers acetone fraction) recorded cent percent mortality of first instar larvae, within four hours. All the extracts / fractions evaluated against Earias vitella exhibited contact toxicity, and ovicidal action. The growth indices were also affected. Few extracts / fractions were so toxic that they exhibited 100% control. When larvae were fed on extract / fraction treated food for growth indices studies, in many cases larvae died. These extracts/ fractions have great potential to be developed as botanical pesticide. Active pesticidal compounds from few promising plants may be extracted and further studied for their pesticidal activity. The present studies suggest that the plant extract may be fractionated for better results.

Our Phytochemical Research on Parthenium hysterophorous

Parthenium hysterophorus (Compositae), an obnoxious weed, was investigated thoroughly for its chemical constituents. We isolated a large number of pseudoguaianolides and other compounds. Many of the isolates are new natural products. Parthenin, the major pseudoguaianolide, was synthetically converted to its various analogues. Some of the constituents of the plant and of the prepared analogues were found to possess significant antibacterial and anticancer properties. Here, we review our phytochemical research on Parthenium hysterophorus informing of our work on the isolation, structure elucidation, synthetic modifications, and bioevaluation of its chemical constituents.

Parthenium hysterophorus mediated inflammation and hyper-responsiveness via NF-κB pathway in human A549 lung cancer cell line.

Being one of the notorious weed P. hysterophorus has invaded almost every part India and is the lead cause of skin allergies and severe dermatitis among farmers and rural population. It is an invasive obnoxious weed capable of surviving extreme environmental conditions and various parts of this plant are reported to cause severe contact allergies in humans due to the presence of high concentrations of toxic sesquiterpene lactones viz. parthenin. It can stimulate numerous cellular and immune responses that may translate into Oxidative stress, allergies, and inflammation. The effect of P. hysterophorus flower extract was evaluated on cell viability, oxidative stress and inflammation in A549 lung cancer cell line by spectrophotometric and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction methods. Schrodinger software based docking was performed for possible interactions studies. The A549 cells treated with P. hysterophorus flower extract favors increase in cell viability, reactive oxygen species generation. The mRNA expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-1β was significantly increased whereas no change in IL-18 expression was observed. Significant increase in protein expression of NF-κB was observed, suggesting the role of NF-κB signalling in allergic responses. The docking studies demonstrated the potential interaction between Parthenin and NF-κB/IL-1β/IL-18 suggesting their activation leading to inflammation. The current study emphasize that P. hysterophorus mediates oxidative stress, and inflammatory process via alterations in expression of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β, IFN-γ through NF-κB activation which was also confirmed in docking studies. Cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in pathogenesis of allergic/chronic inflammation and severe dermatitis need to be further investigated to identify specific binding partners responsible for severe inflammation which can provide some leads in developing effective targets against severe dermatitis and skin allergies.

Absorption of Lead and Mercury in Dominant Aquatic Macrophytes of Balili River and Its Implication to Phytoremediation of Water Bodies.

In the Philippines, phytoremediation studies on heavy metals are mainly concentrated in mining areas amidst several reports of heavy metal contamination even in non-mining sites in various parts of the country. Such was the case Balili River which was reportedly contaminated with mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb). Aquatic macrophytes growing in the river could offer the solution to this problem via phytoremediation. Thus, this study was conceptualised to determine the uptake of Hg and Pb in selected dominant macrophytes of the river namely Amaranthus spinosus, Eleusine indica and Pennisetum purpureum. Soil, water and plant samples gathered from the study sites were submitted to Department of Science and Technology-Cordillera Administrative Region (DOST-CAR) laboratory for Hg and Pb determination. Soil and wastewater of Balili River were found contaminated with Pb but not with Hg. The soil recorded higher Hg concentration than water while Pb concentrations did not differ between the two media. The aquatic macrophytes in the study registered consistently higher Hg and Pb in their shoots > roots but differed in their capacities and distribution in the shoot organs. Hg and Pb accumulation was significantly (p = 0.00) higher in stem of P. purpureum while in E. indica, leaf had the highest accumulation, though not statistically significant (p = 0.09). For A. spinosus, Hg was highest in its leaf while Pb in stem, though not statistically significant (p = 0.06). Among the three macrophytes, P. purpureum showed the highest potential for Hg uptake and translocation and for Pb uptake. On the other hand, the highest Pb internal transfer was recorded in E. indica. These results contradict initial findings that Pb is mostly accumulated in plant roots with minimal shoot translocation. Also, these results show that local macrophytes in Balili River, even if obnoxious weeds, are ecologically important and could be used for phytoremediation of local rivers that are recipient of small-scale mine tailings.

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VERMICOMPOST USING PARTHENIUM BIODUNG AND USUAL GREEN BIODUNG

Parthenium hysterophorus has achieved major weed status in India and Australia within past few decades, and within last decade it has become one of the seven most dreaded weeds of the world. The weed reduces the dry matter of crops, sucks the nutrients and starves the crops. Thus considering the great importance of the problem, health hazards, nuisance value, resistive seeds, toxicity of parthenin, and quiet amount of nutrients inside the plant and its easy availability in large quantity, this green Parthenium weed is selected as a special bio-mass in this experiment aimed to degrade the whole plant including seeds biologically to prepare compost and thus recycling organic matter of the weed back to the soil to replenish it and at the same time reducing its toxicity through hot or aerobic composting. Present work was focused on biodegradation of Parthenium bio-mass safely so that the manure does not contain the seeds of Parthenium. Thus considering its easy availability in huge quantity, its immense nutritive potential, its hazardous effects on human being, its nuisance to the agricultural field, its large number of pollens causing pollution of air and allergenic diseases, this obnoxious weed was selected as special organic bio-mass for the preparation of compost. This experiment will prove a great asset to the farmers to use it with other green bio-mass for the preparation of compost without any doubt.