Author(s)

Christiane Maria de Oliveira¹, Maria das Graças Cardoso^1*, Ana Cristina da Silva Figueiredo², Maria Laene Moreira de Carvalho³, Cíntia Alvarenga Santos Fraga de Miranda¹, Luiz Roberto Marques Albuquerque¹, David Lee Nelson⁴, Marcos de Souza Gomes¹, Lucilene Fernandes Silva¹, Juliana de Andrade Santiago¹, Maria Luisa Teixeira¹, Rafaela Magalhães Brandão¹

¹Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Brazil.
²Centro de Biotecnologia Vegetal/IBB, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
³Department of Agriculture, Federal University of Lavras, Lavras, Brazil.
⁴Federal University of Valleys Jequitinhonha and Mucuri, Diamantina, Brazil.

The extraction of essential oils was performed by using the technique of hydrodistillation modified Clevenger apparatus, identification and quantification of the constituents was achieved by Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry, and Gas Chromatography equipped with a flame ionization detector. Assessment of allelopathic activity was evaluated with the use of the method that assesses the direct contact of essential oils on germination and vigor of lettuce seeds. The major constituents that characterize the essential oil from the flowers of Callistemon viminalis were 1, 8-cineole, α-pinene and limonene at concentrations of 66.9%, 16.0% and 10.0%, respectively. The essential oil presented allelopathic activity at intensities that varied proportionately to the concentration of the essential oil, with a reduction in the percentage of germination and the germination speed index (GSI) of lettuce seeds and in the dry mass and length of shoots and roots of lettuce seedlings.

Biological Activity, Myrtaceae, Allelopathy

de Oliveira, C. , Cardoso, M. , Figueiredo, A. , de Carvalho, M. , Miranda, C. , Marques Albuquerque, L. , Lee Nelson, D. , Souza Gomes, M. , Silva, L. , Andrade Santiago, J. , Teixeira, M. and Brandão, R. (2014) Chemical Composition and Allelopathic Activity of the Essential Oil from Callistemon viminalis (Myrtaceae) Blossoms on Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) Seedlings. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 5, 3551-3557. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2014.524371.