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Submitted to: Hortscience Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/1997 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: These studies were initiated to investigate severe growth inhibition observed when some vegetable crops were infested with corn spurry (Spergula arvensis L.). Interference by a natural population of the weed reduced the shoot fresh weights of English pea (Pisum sativum L.) and collard (Brassica oleracea L.) by 93 and 72%, respectively. In a greenhouse experiment where light competition by corn spurry was prevented, broccoli (Brassica oleracea L.) shoot weights were reduced by corn spurry, but pea weights were different from the controls. Homogenized corn spurry shoot tissue incorporated into a greenhouse potting medium inhibited the growth of both species, and a concentration effect was observed. Sequential hexane, dichloromethane, methanol, and 50% aqueous methanol extracts of corn spurry root and shoot tissue were tested for inhibitory activity using millet seed germination and broccoli seedling growth bioassays. Dichloromethane, methanol and aqueous methanol shoot extracts were inhibitory to broccoli; whereas, all shoot extracts inhibited millet germination. Shoot extracts were more inhibitory than root extracts. Further, fractionation of the inhibitors using a combination of reversed- phase sephadex LH-20 and silicic acid column chromatographic procedures showed that a major portion of the millet germination inhibition was due to to sucrose esters (SE). Preliminary characterization of the esters showed that there were four different SE groups. The major groups contained either octanoic or dodecanoic acid along with butanoic and petanoic acids. All groups inhibited seed germination at concentrations as low as 20 ppm. This is the first report of the SE class of defense chemicals in plant species outised of the solanaceae family. |
