Department of Ecology, School of Life Sciences/State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China E. Mail: lssysx@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
*Correspondence author.
1 Dongguan Botanical Garden, Dongguan 523079, China.
A fast and effective method for the extraction, separation and identification of volatile compounds from intact Eucalyptus urophylla leaves has been developed by applying the SPME-GC-MS technique. Twenty seven terpenoids were identified in the headspace volatiles, dominated by 1,8-cineole. 1,8-cineole was assayed on Lactuca sativa (lettuce) to test its allelopathic effect. The lettuce seed germination rate decreased with the increase in concentration of 1,8-cineole, whereas the final germination (%) was affected at much higher concentration (0.30 mmol/L). The 1,8cineole suppressed the seedling growth and fresh weight in dose-dependent manner and the root elongation proved the most sensitive parameter. These findings show that 1,8-cineole plays important role in allelopathic effects E. urophylla leaf.
1,8-cineole, allelopathy, Eucalyptus urophylla, Gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS), lettuce, solid-phase microextraction (SPME)
