Comparison of Allelopathic Efficacy of Weeds: A New Avenue for Chemotherapeutics

Weeds are considered troublesome and undesirable component leading to enormous reduction in crop yield, wastages of resources and human energy. An attempt has been made to evaluate the effect extracts of four obnoxious weeds, Argemone mexicana, Parthenium hysterophorus, Cyperus rotundus Lin., Verbesina encelioides on the mitotic activity of germination of mung beans. Metabolites were extracted in methanol, acetone , hexane and distilled water using soxhlet extraction and assayed for the presence of bioactive metabolites. Presence of terpenes, flavonoids and quinines were observed in the methanol extract of all the weeds and hexane extracts indicated the presence of glycosides and flavonoids. Based on percentage inhibition studies, it was found water extracts followed by acetone extracts for all the weeds were most potent as a growth inhibitor. Argemone Mexicana and Parthenium hysterophoresus were found to be most potent in inhibiting mitotic activity and growth although statistical significance (P