Allelopathic Nature of Cucumis Prophetarum Linn.

Abstract

ABSTRACT
Cucumis prophetarum Linn. is perennial, monoecious climber, commonly growing weed, belonging to family Cucurbitaceae. The whole plant of C. prophetarum is medicinally important. Plant pacifies vitiated dysentery, diarrheic diseases, flatulene, skin diseases, antivenin and general debility. Dispending medicinally uses, our study has found that this weed is allelopathic in nature. To check the allelopathic activity, C. prophetarum was assessed for the effects of their extracts on the growth of mature seeds of Phaseolus aconitifolius Jacq. variety “Abhaya” as a test plant. Leachates and decomposition bioassay method was followed for detection of allelopathic activity. Root shows dominance as compared to other three plants in leachates bioassays. In decomposition bioassay C. prophetarum shows the allelopathic activity on seedling growth and seed germination of P. aconitifolius. The variation may result, in part, from the test plant with different sensitivity to allelochemicals. However, C. prophetarum possessed high allelopathic potential and may be a good candidate for isolation and identification of allelochemicals. Further preliminary phytochemical tests were carried out for the confirmation of starch, proteins, tannins, saponins, reducing sugars on water extractives while alkaloids, glucosides and flavonoids in alcoholic extractive.
Keywords: Cucumis prophetarum, allelopathy, bioassay, Phaseolus aconitifolius, inhibitory effect, phytochemical analysis