Allelopathic Effect of Serphidium kaschgaricum (Krasch.) Poljak. Volatiles on Selected Species

• Published in: Plants (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 495
• Main Authors: Zhou, Shixing, Zokir, Toshmatov, Mei, Yu, Lei, Lijing, Shi, Kai, Zou, Ting, Zhang, Chi, Shao, Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 05.03.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Allelochemicals; Allelopathy; Camphor; Competitiveness; Elongation; Essential oils; Flavonoids; Flowering; Flowers; Flowers & plants; Germination; Leaves; Organic compounds; Phytotoxicity; Plants (botany); Seed germination; Seedlings; Seeds; Seriphidium kaschgaricum; Shoots; Stems; VOCs; Volatile compounds; volatile oil; Volatile organic compounds; Volatiles; VOCs; allelopathy; volatile oil; phytotoxicity; Seriphidium kaschgaricum
• ISSN: 2223-7747; 2223-7747
• DOI: 10.3390/plants10030495

The chemical profile and allelopathic effect of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by a dominant shrub (Krasch.) Poljak. growing in northwestern China was investigated for the first time. was found to release volatile compounds into the surroundings to affect other plants' growth, with its VOCs suppressing root elongation of L. and 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 and . 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 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.