Allelopathic I. Fleet of Root Exudates From the Obnoxious Weed, Parthenium Hysterophorus L.

A novel system called "Continuous Root Exudate Trapping System" was employed to investigate the allelopathic potentials of the hazardous weed, Parthenium hysterophorus L. The setup allowed the collection of root exudates alone from an undisturbed living plant. The exudates, thus collected were separated into three fractions and each of them was tested against the germination and seedling growth of pearl millet seeds. The greatest inhibition was found in the neutral fraction. Germination was significantly inhibited by all the fractions at all the concentrations. W th the seedling growth, radicle length was inhibited more than the plumule growth. Following the results of thin hyer chromatography, it was concluded that Parthenin or any other major sesquiterpene lactone was not a part of the exudates from the roots of P. hysterophorus.