Salinity-Induced Attenuation in Secondary Metabolites Profile and Herbicidal Potential of Brassica nigra L. on Anagallis arvensis L

• Published in: Journal of plant growth regulation 2023-02, Vol.42 (2), p.973-988
• Main Authors: Khare, Shubhra, Singh, N. B., Niharika, Singh, Ajey, Amist, Nimisha, Azim, Zeba, Bano, Chanda, Yadav, Vijaya, Yadav, Ravi Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Agriculture; Anagallis arvensis; Bioactive compounds; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Brassica; Brassica nigra; Defense mechanisms; Environmental stress; Enzymatic activity; Gas chromatography; Herbicides; Life Sciences; Lipid peroxidation; Lipids; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolites; Oxidative stress; Peroxidation; Phytotoxicity; Plant Anatomy/Development; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Reagents; Salinity; Salinity effects; Secondary metabolites; Sodium chloride; Soil salinity; Survival
• ISSN: 0721-7595; 1435-8107
• DOI: 10.1007/s00344-022-10607-3

Studies on plant defense mechanisms in stressful conditions predict that plant cope up with increasing stress for survival. Under environmental stress plants interact with problems like competition and survival under resource constraints or utilization of these resources in production of secondary compounds. In this experiment, we examined the costs of defense by evaluating variation in production of secondary compounds of  Brassica nigra  grown in the saline (B1 = 100 mM NaCl and B2 = 150 mM NaCl) and control (C = 0 mM) soils and impact of its extracts on weed  Anagallis arvensis  L. The main allelopathic compounds in  Brassica  were determined using gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy (GC–MS). The results indicated that A. arvensis  was adversely affected by the aqueous extracts of B. nigra . These observations might be related to extracts induced oxidative stress indicated by superoxide (O 2 − ) production through nitroblue tetrazolium, cell integrity by Evans blue staining, malondialdehyde estimation by Schiff reagent, lipid peroxidation, lignin deposition, and antioxidant enzyme activities assay. We observed that soil salinity reduced the phytotoxicity of aqueous extract and decreased its potential. The presence of different bioactive compounds improved the natural herbicidal properties of  B. nigra and it can be used in various medicinal and agricultural practices.