TY - JOUR AU - PEREZ-LEAL, Ramona AU - TORRES-RAMOS, Maribel AU - FLORES-CORDOVA, Maria A. AU - GONZALEZ-FRANCO, Ana C. AU - HERNANDEZ-RODRIGUEZ, Adriana AU - SOTO-PARRA, Juan M. AU - ROBLES-HERNANDEZ, Loreto PY - 2020/03/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Phytotoxic and dissuasive activity of Chihuahua desert plants JF - Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca JA - Not Bot Horti Agrobo VL - 48 IS - 1 SE - Research Articles DO - 10.15835/nbha48111505 UR - https://notulaebotanicae.ro/index.php/nbha/article/view/11505 SP - 426-435 AB - <p style="text-align: justify;">With the purpose of finding plant compounds with the potential use as herbicides and insecticides, a research was realized with the objective of evaluate the phytotoxic and dissuasive activity of four Chihuahua desert plants. The phytotoxic activity evaluation was tested on <em>Lactuca sativa </em>and <em>Lolium perenne</em>, while the dissuasive activity was realized on three species of phytophagous insects: <em>Myzus persicae</em>, <em>Rhopalosiphum padi</em> and <em>Spodoptera littoralis</em>. Raw extracts were used, the solvents hexane, methanol and ethanol of different plants’ organs (root, steam, leaf and flower) of four species: <em>Fouquieria splendens</em> (ocotillo), <em>Larrea tridentate</em> (governor), <em>Astragalus mollissimus </em>(wild grass) and <em>Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum </em>(echo), by the establishment of <em>in vitro</em> bioassays at a concentration of 10 mg/ml extract/solvent. In the toxicity bioassay, the percentage of germination, root and leaf length were measured. The results showed that the leaf extract of <em>L</em>. <em>tridentata</em> had phytotoxic activity for <em>L</em>. <em>sativa</em>, while for <em>L</em>. <em>perenne</em> the phytotoxicity was observed within the ocotillo, governor and echo extracts. In the dissuasive bioassay, each treatment had 20 repetitions with 10 adult insects per repetition. The methanolic extracts of <em>F. splendens </em>leaf and root, ethanolic extract of <em>A. mollisimus </em>sheet and the ethanolic extract of <em>P</em>. <em>pecten-aboriginum</em> stems showed moderate dissuasive response of feeding against <em>M. persicae</em>, presenting a settlement inhibition index of 53.53, 54.35, 60.00 and 48.84% respectively. Nevertheless, the results indicated that none of the 10 extracts tested on <em>S. littoralis </em>showed significant dissuasive properties for this Lepidoptera, while for <em>R</em>. <em>padi</em> all the tested extracts presented dissuasive properties. The treatments of the four vegetable species evaluated showed defensive or dissuasive properties of moderate to strong feeding against the insects <em>M</em>. <em>persicae</em> and <em>R</em>. <em>padi</em>, presenting interesting potential for being used as insecticides, while the tested extracts that presented phytotoxicity for both lettuce and ryegrass present possibilities for the realization of herbicides.</p> ER -