TITLE:
Allelopathy of Medicinal Plants: Current Status and Future Prospects in Weed Management
AUTHORS:
A. K. M. Mominul Islam, Sabina Yeasmin, Jamal Ragheb Said Qasem, Abdul Shukor Juraimi, Md. Parvez Anwar
KEYWORDS:
Allelochemicals, Medicinal Plants, Natural Products, Bio-Herbicides, Sustainable Weed Management
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.9 No.12,
December
14,
2018
ABSTRACT: An attempt has been made in this article to accumulate and elucidate the literatures about the allelopathic potentiality of medicinal plants, and its role on the development of bio-herbicides for eco-friendly weed management strategies to conserve bio-diversity and ecological balance. This review paper has been prepared by comprehensive studies of various published research articles, books and proceedings available in the world literature. The farmers of different countries use several weed management techniques in order to minimize the deleterious effect of weeds. Among them most commonly used practice is application of herbicides due to its high efficacy and cost effectiveness, less time-consuming nature, flexibility and easy accessibility, and more rapid out return. Although use of synthetic herbicides in the crop fields has increased the crop production as well as the productivity by reducing the weed infestation, over time it causes a number of environmental hazards. Hence, to avoid these detrimental effects of synthetic herbicide, a lot of efforts have been dedicated by the researchers to search the novel natural plant products mainly allelochemicals and try to apply them as a tool for the development of bio-degradable natural herbicides. This paper intended to reflect the current state of allelopathic medicinal plants and their potentiality to develop eco-friendly and natural product-based herbicides for sustainable agriculture, and to invite further debate on this issue.