Phytotoxic Effect of Filicium decipiens Leaf Extract

Numerous phytotoxic substances have been isolated from plants and used for environmentally friendly pests control. Allegedly, ferntree (Filicium decipiens) contains phytotoxic substances that can be used as a potential allelochemicals for weed control. The experiment was therefore mainly conducted to carry out preliminary study for isolation and identification of the phytotoxic substances. The bioassay was examined under laboratory condition to assess the phytotoxic effect. Seedling growth of four monocot species, barnyard grass, foxtail fescue, Italian ryegrass and timothy and four dicot species, alfalfa, garden cress, lettuce and rapeseed were measured as the experiment parameters in this study. The inhibition of seedling growth of all test plants was concentration dependent and the sensitivity of each test plant vary to the extract of F. decipiens leaves. The most sensitive test plant was Italian ryegrass for monocots and garden cress for dicots. Result of IC value calculation concluded that seedling growth of all test plants inhibited 50% at the concentration 50 9.71-31.72 and 6.68-33.10 mg dry weight equivalent extract mL for shoots and roots, respectively. These 1 results suggested that F. decipiens possess phytotoxic substances and the plant may be used as a potential source for bioactive substances for natural herbicides.