Allelopathic Potency and an Active Substance from Hairy Vetch

Background: Plant allelopathy refers to the release of chemicals from plants or microorganisms into the environment, may have direct or indirect, beneficial or harmful effects on other plants or microorganisms. When plants grow in an unfavorable environment, more allelochemicals will be secreted and the expression of allelopathic effects will increase, giving plants a certain competitive advantage. Hairy vetch is one of the most promising allelopathic crops and the aqueous extract of hairy vetch has an inhibitory effect on the root length and seedling height of grass crops. The current study aimed to study the allelopathic effect of hairy vetch on alfalfa, and exploring an ecological method to remove the root system of alfalfa. Methods: In this experiment, the allelopathic effects of the seeds, stems and leaves, roots extracts and root exudates (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 mg-mL(-1)) on the seed germination and seedling growth of alfalfa were evaluated. And the main allelopathic substances from the stem and leaf extract were isolated and identified using high performance liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Result: The results showed that all of the extracts can inhibit alfalfa seed germination and seedling growth and stem and leaf extract had the strongest inhibitory effect, especially for inhibiting the root growth. A main allelochemical substance, o-coumaric acid, was screened out and the root length of alfalfa was completely inhibited at 1.6 mg-mL(-1) of o-coumaric acid. The findings of these experiments show hairy vetch has strong allelopathic effect on alfalfa and o-coumaric acid is a chemical growth inhibitor.