Withania as Effective Herbicide against a prominent weed of Mid–Himmalaya, Parthenium hysterophorus.

Mamta Sharma; Sunil Puri

Volume : IV, Issue : IX, September - 2015

Withania as Effective Herbicide against a prominent weed of Mid–Himmalaya, Parthenium hysterophorus.

Mamta Sharma, Sunil Puri

Abstract :

The present study was designed to evaluate the herbicidal activity of Withania somnifera against the noxious weed Parthenium hysterophorus L. in a laboratory bioassay.The effect of aqueous root, stem and leaf extracts of Withania somnifera were tested against the germination and seedling growth of Parthenium. All the aqueous extracts markedly suppressed the germination and seedling growth of Parthenium. Generally, the effect of leaf extract was more pronounced than the effect of stem and root extracts. In foliar spray bioassay, aqueous leaf extracts of 100% w/v concentrations were sprayed on two month old seedlings of Parthenium. The sprays were applied frequently at interval of 5 days. All the aqueous extracts significantly suppressed shoot length, root length, fresh weight and dry weight of Parthenium seedling. In foliar spray bioassay, leaf extract suppressed the stem length, root length, fresh weight, dry weight, no of root anches and no. of shoot anches of studied weed. The present study concludes that leaf, stem and roots of Withania somnifera contain herbicidal constituents for the management of Parthenium weed which could prove a milestone in weed management in Mid–Himalaya.