Screening of allelopathic potential bangladesh rice cultivars by donor-receiver bioassay

Abstract

To identify allelopathic rice, 102 Bangladesh rice cultivars (42 high yielding and 60 traditional cultivars) were screen out using laboratory donor-receiver bioassay. Cress (Lepidium sativum L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv.) and Echinochloa colonum (L.) Link were used for bioassay as test plants. High yielding rice cultivars, BRRI dhan37, BRRI dhan30, BR26 and BRRI dhan38, respectively, had the most significant inhibiting effect on the growth of cress, lettuce, barnyardgrass and E. colonum. Traditional rice cultivars, Goai and Jogly, respectively, showed the highest inhibition on the growth of cress and lettuce. Kartikshail had the most significant inhibition on the growth of barnyardgrass and E. colonum. Although none of the rice cultivar had strong inhibitory activity on all of the test plant species, several rice cultivars inhibited the root and hypocotyl/shoot growth of all the four test plant species and a high yielding rice cultivar, BR17 marked the greatest inhibitory activity with an average of 39.51% of the growth inhibition on roots and hypocotyls/shoots of cress, lettuce, barnyardgrass and E. colonum. The present research suggests that BR17 is the most allelopathic in 102 Bangladesh rice cultivars and may be one of the candidates for research programme of Bangladesh rice allelopathy for isolation and identification of allelochemicals. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.