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Review
. 2022 Nov 28:13:1034649.
doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1034649. eCollection 2022.

Allelopathy and its application as a weed management tool: A review

Yuvraj Khamare  1 , Jianjun Chen  1 , Stephen Christopher Marble  1
Affiliations
Review

Allelopathy and its application as a weed management tool: A review

Yuvraj Khamare et al. Front Plant Sci. .

Abstract

Weeds are a serious threat to crop production as they interfere with the crop growth and development and result in significant crop losses. Weeds actually cause yield loss higher than any other pest in crop production. As a result, synthetic herbicides have been widely used for weed management. Heavy usage of synthetic herbicides, however, has resulted in public concerns over the impact of herbicides on human health and the environment. Due to various environmental and health issues associated with synthetic herbicides, researchers have been exploring alternative environmentally friendly means of controlling weed. Among them, incorporating allelopathy as a tool in an integrated weed management plan could meaningfully bring down herbicide application. Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon of chemical interaction between plants, and this phenomenon has great potential to be used as an effective and environmentally friendly tool for weed management in field crops. In field crops, allelopathy can be applied through intercropping, crop rotation, cover crops, mulching and allelopathic water extracts to manage weeds. Accumulating evidence indicates that some plant species possess potent allelochemicals that have great potential to be the ecofriendly natural herbicides. This review is intended to provide an overview of several allelopathic species that release some form of the potent allelochemical with the potential of being used in conventional or organic agriculture. Further, the review also highlights potential ways allelopathy could be utilized in conventional or organic agriculture and identify future research needs and prospects. It is anticipated that the phenomenon of allelopathy will be further explored as a weed management tool, and it can be a part of a sustainable, ecological, and integrated weed management system.

Keywords: allelochemicals; bioherbicides; intercropping; natural herbicides; weed control.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representive allelochemicals from the classified 14 categories based on their chemical similarities.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Selected seven allelochemicals from the 14 categories, their sources, and the allelochemicals present in them.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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