Allelopathic Response of Medicinal Plants on Germination and Growth of Traditional Field Crops

Investigation was conducted to evaluate the effect of three medicinal plant species on germination and radicalplumule growth of different test crops. All the test crops were found sensitive under leaf and ischolar_main extracts of all three medicinal plant species except in Centella asiatica as it shows least/no effect and can therefore, cultivated with agriculture crops. The preference order of medicinal plant species on the basis of laboratory tests is suggested as: Centella asiatica > Catharanthus roseus > Bryophyllum pinnatum and the order of field crops preference is: Vigna radiata > Zea mays > Cicer arietinum. Therefore, it is concluded that the results obtained within the scope of our study yielded sufficient preliminary evidence for considerable allelopathic effects from Bryophyllum pinnatum and Catharanthus roseus. Our data support allelopathy as a substantial factor in the competitive ability of the medicinal plant species and field crops. Further focus may be on the study for population dynamical aspects to unravel the key traits underlying the establishment of sustained agriculture.