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Environment & Ecology 32 (1A) : 201—205, January—March 2014

Website : environmentandecology.com ISSN 0970-0420

Nutrient Content of Transplanted Rice Increase by Controlling

Weed Through Xanthium strumarium Extracts

P. K. Upadhyay, E. Kumari, A. Sen,

S. K. Choudhary, R. K. Singh

Received 23 September 2013; Accepted 24 October 2013; Published online 31 October 2013

Abstract To minimize problem of herbicide resis-

tance as well as soil and water pollution, plant prod-

ucts and plant residues are used for management of

weeds because various types of allelochemicals have

been found to possess capacity to control weeds and

also improve or maintain soil productivity. Due to pres-

ence of several allelochemical Xanthium strumarium

extract has been used as a pre emergence herbicide

which reduces the population of weeds and enhances

the nutrients content in the plants. It was found that

application of petroleum ether extract of X. Strumarium

@ 2000 and 3000 mg l-1 cause significant reduction in

the population of weeds which helps in reducing the

crop-weed competition for nutrient applied for the

crop (rice variety HUBR 2-1) as compared to control

plot and at par with Anilophos a well known herbi-

cide for controllling weeds in transplanted rice.

Keywords Nutrient content, Herbicide, Petroblem

ether.

Introduction

Throughout history, rice remains a staple food for

two-thirds of the world’s population, especially for

south-eastern Asia, where 90% of the world produc-

tion of rice is grown and consumed and has become

an item of commerce since the last two decades. About

four-fifths of the world’s rice are produced by small-

scale farmers and are consumed locally. The slogan

“Rice is life” is most appropriate for the country as

the crop plays a vital role in national food security

providing about two third calories to the people in

humid and sub humid Asia. It is grown 112 counties

in world, covering every contrinent, every continent,

and is consumed by 2500 million people in develop-

ing countries. Among cereals rice is the major source

of calories for about 40% of the world population and

every third person on earth eats rice every day in one

form or other (1).

Since the weeds are the main enemies of the cul-

tivated paddy crop, it should be eliminated in proper

time. Hand weeding, which is in practice, is very ef-

fective if followed in time, though it is tedious, time

consuming and costly. Moreover, presently labor

availability of such operation has decreased due to

rapid industrialization, increased literacy and migra-

tion of labor to urban areas. Weeds are naturally

grown plant which are able to extract nutrients and

water from the soil and are competent enough to har-

vest light energy. In the growing plants, leaf area in-

dex and root density increase which leads to matual

interfernce in the utilization of growth factors. The

population of weeds crossing over threahold level

P. K. Upadhyay*, E. Kumari, A. Sen, S. K. Choudhary,

R. K. Singh

Department of Agronomy, Institute of Agricultural

Sciences, Banaras Hindu University,

Varanasi 221005, India

e-mail: pravin.ndu@gmail.com

*Correspondence

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increases the competition for growth factors result-

ing in reduction of crop production. The weed and

crop compete for such common growth factors whose

availability is less. Naturally grown weeds absorb more

nutrients from the soil than the crop. In the begin-

ning of the crop growth, weeds absorb excess nutri-

ents because majority of the annual weeds compete

its life cycle within 50-60 days whereas the crops take-

100-130 days. crop and weeds require nutrients im-

mediately after germination and emergence. Weeds

usually absorb mineral nutrients faster than many of

the crop plants and accumulated them in their tissues

in relatively larger amount and therefore, derive greater

benefit (2). Among the plant nutrients, Nitrogen, phos-

phorus and potassium are limiting ones and among

them nitrogen is the first nutrient to become limiting

due to crop weeds competion (3). Nitrogen depletion

znes are likely wider and similar to those of water. In

order to minimize problem of nutrient depletion by

weed the management of weeds are necessary. Ap-

plication of Xanthium strumarium extract as pre-emer-

gence herbicide help in reducing the weed popula-

tion and field became free so the nutrient removal by

crop increasd.

Xanthium strumarium is a cocklebur or burweed

commonly found as a weed in roadsides, rice fields,

and hedges throughout the tropical parts of India.

The word “Xanthium” is derived from an ancient Greek

word “xanthos” meaning yellow and “strumarium”

means “cushionlike swelling,” with reference to the

seed pods which turn green to yellow as they ripen

(later they become deep yellow to brown). It is com-

monly called chotagokhru due to the shape of its fruit

which look likes the cow’s toe. In many parts of India,

it is known as adhasisi, as this weed is used for the

treatment of common disease hemicrania.

Due to presence of several allelochemical

Xanthium strumarium extract has been used as a her-

bicide. Upadhayay et al. (2004) reported that petro-

leum ether extract from seed and stem + leaf of

Xanthium exhibited 42.98% phytotoxicity on

Echinochloa followed by methanol and water extract

respectively.

Keeping all these points in view the field experi-

ment was conducted to know the effect of different

treatment in enhancing the nutrient content of

transplated rice.

Materials and Methods

We carried two year field experiment during the rainy

season of 2011 at the Agricultural Research Farm of

the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu

University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The Agri-

cultural Research Farm is situated at a distance of

about 10 km from the Varanasi Railway Station in the

South-East direction and lies in the North Gangetic

alluvial plain, on the left side of river Ganges. It is

located at 25.2 N latitude and 83.0 E longitude and at

an altitude of 75.7 meters above the mean sea

level.Varanasi falls in the belt of semi-arid to sub-hu-

mid climate receiving a mean assured rainfall of 1100

mm and potential evapotranspiration of about 1,525

mm thus causing a moisture deficit of 425 mm. The

soil of the experimental field was Gangetic alluvial

having sandy clay loam texture with pH 7.5. It was

moderately fertile, with available nitrogen (181.2kg/

ha), available phosphorus (25.5 kg/ha), available po-

tassium (201.4 kg/ha) and organic carbon (0.33%). The

experiment was laid out in randomized complete block

design with 11 herbicidal treatments viz. petroleum

ether extract of X. strumarium @ 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000

mg l-1, Anilofos @ 900 ml-l, Butachlor @ 3000 mg l-1,

methanol extract of X. strumarium @ 1000, 2000 and

3000 mg l-1, water extract of X. strumarium @ 1000,

2000 and 3000 m l-1 and untreated control. The treat-

ments were replicated thrice. A recommended dose

of 120 kg N, 60 kg P2O

5 , 60 kg K

2O ha-1 and 4.2 kg Zn

were applied to rice crop, through broadcasting. Ni-

trogen, phosphorous and potassium were applied

through urea, diammonium phosphate (DAP), muri-

ate of potash (MOP) and zinc sulfate (ZnSO4.7H

2O)

respectively. One fourth dose of nitrogen and full dose

of P, K and Zn were applied after last puddling and

remaining three-fourth in two different doses, first

two-fourth doses at tillering stage (30 days after trans-

planting) and second one-fourth doses at panicle ini-

tiation stage (55 days after transplanting).

Xanthium strumarium

Xanthium strumarium is a common weed found in

India. It is a herbaceous plant, native of India, Ceylon,

203

North America and other warmer parts of world. It is a

deep-rooted,short-lived, summer annual herb with an

height of 30-90 cm and propagates through seed ly-

ing with its burr (4).

The aerial parts of the plant contain a mixture of

unidentified alkaloids, which are said to be toxic. Be-

sides alkaloids, the aerial parts of the plant contain

sesquiterpene lactones, viz. xanthinin. The main toxic

compound isolated from the plant has been identified

as carboxyatractyloside, a kaurene glycoside previ-

ously called xanthostrumarium. In addition to

carboxyatractyloside CAT, potentially toxic ingredi-

ents include several sesquitepene lactones e.g.

guaianolides, germacranolides, and elemanolides (5).

The toxic principles of the seeds are hydroquinone,

choline and a third more toxic unidentified compound.

Besides these, the seeds also contain considerable

amount of iodine (6).

Extraction of Xanthium strumarium

Petroleum ether extraction (low polar solvent ex-

traction)

Xanthium strumarium was collected from Agricultu-

ral Research Farm. It was air dried for 75 days and

ground separately viz. stem, leaf and seed with willey

grinder. Then final ground material was mixed

(stem+leaf+seed) and used for extraction.

Soxhlet was used as extraction apparatus. Nor-

mally, ground X.Strumarium (stem + leaf+seed) of 100

g weight was placed inside a thimble made from thick

filter paper, which was loaded into the main chamber

of the Soxhlet extractor. The Soxhlet extractor was

placed into a flask containing 1000 ml petroleum ether

(60-80oC). The Soxhlet was then fitted with with a con-

denser.

The petroleum ether was heated up to 70oC. The

solvent vapour travels up a distillation arm, and floods

into the chamber housing the thimble of solid matarial.

The condenser ensures cooling of solvent vapor, and

drips back down into the chamber housing the ground

X. Strumarium (stem + leaf+seed).

The chamber containing the solid material slowly

Table 1. Amount of extracts obtained from 100 g of ground

Xanthium strumarium L.

Name of Volume of Extract

solvent solvent (mL) weight (g)

Petroleum ether 1000 4.16

Methanol 1000 5.8

Water 1000 8.12

filled with warm solvent. Some of the desired com-

pound was dissolved in the warm solvent. When the

Soxhlet chamber was almost full, the chamber was

automatically emptied by a siphon side arm, with the

solvent runing back down to the distillation flask.

This cycle was allowed to repeat over 5 hours. In this

way mixture of petroleum ether and soluble compound

of X. strumarium was collected in round bottom flask.

After extraction the solvent is removed, typically

by means of a rotary evaporator yielding 4.16 g ex-

tracted material. The data pertaining to this attribute

are presented in Table 1. The non-soluble portion of

the extracted solid remained in the thimble, and was

discarded.

Methanol extraction

(High polar solvent extraction)

All extraction process was same as petroleum ether

extraction but instead of petroleum ether methanol

was used as solvent. The data pertaining to this at-

tribute has been presented in Table 1 which was show

that when 1000 ml methanol was used as solvent,

5.8g plant extract was obtained from 100 g ground X.

strumarium.

Water extraction (boiling water)

Water extraction was done by placing 100 g ground

cocklbur (equal proportion of stem, leaf and seed) in

beaker of water boiled by heater for an hour. The ma-

terial was filtered with cotton cloth and filtrate con-

taining plant extract and water was separated by us-

ing heater. In this way water was evaporated and plant

extract (8.12 g) was left in beaker. The data pertaining

to this attribute has been presented in Table 1.

Herbicides and all Xanthium strumarium extract

204

Table 2. Effect of different treatments on nutrients content (%) of rice crop.

Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium

Treatments Rate (mg L-1) Grain Straw Grain Straw Grain Straw

Control - 1.19 0.59 0.19 0.075 0.28 1.75

Anilofos 900 1.24 0.75 0.24 0.099 0.35 2.15

Butachlor 3000 1.22 0.68 0.22 0.089 0.34 1.96

Petroleum ether extract of

Xanthium strumarium 2000 1.24 0.73 0.24 0.096 0.35 2.11

Petroleum ether extract of

Xanthium strumarium 3000 1.24 0.79 0.25 0.112 0.35 2.17

LSD (P=0.05) 0.010 0.054 0.015 0.010 0.027 0.115

were applied in transplanted ricevariety HUBR 2-1 as

pre-emergence of weeds after two days of transplant-

ing. The variation in the nutrient content of the plant

was analyses after harvesting.

Statistical analysis

The observations recorded during the course of in-

vestigation were tabulated and analyzed statistically

to draw a valid conclusion. The data were analyzed

as per the standard procedure for “Analysis of Vari-

ance” (ANOVA) as described by Gomez and Gomez

(7) by using Microsoft office excels 2007. The signifi-

cance of treatments was tested by F test (variance

ratio). Standard error of mean was computed in all

cases. The difference in the treatment mean were

tested by using Least Significant Difference (LSD) at

5% level of probability where ‘F’ test showed signifi-

cant differences among means by the following for-

mula :

2× error mean sum of square

LSD = ———————————— × t (error d.f.5%)√Results and Discussion

Among the treatments application of petroleum ether

extract of X. strumarium @ 2000 and 3000 mg l -1 re-

corded maximum N, P and K content in grain and straw

(Table 2). This was perhaps due to lower weed com-

petition in terms of dry matter of weeds which pro-

vided congenial environment for more availability of

moisture and nutrient to crop and restrict removal of

nutrient by weeds which in turn encouraged better

plant growth, bold grains and finally higher yield which

led to uptake of N, P and K. It was found that applica-

tion of petroleum ether @ 2000 and 3000 mg l-1 equally

effective because both are at par with each other.

Nanjappa and Krishnamurthy (8) reported that N, P

and K uptake by rice crop was inversely proportional

to the N, P and K uptake by weeds. Nandal and Singh

(9) found that application of herbicides reduced nu-

trient removal by weeds. Use of herbicides minimized

the weefs effectively and made more nutrients avail-

able to rice crop and consequently results in higher

yield.

Since application of petroleum ether extract @

2,000 and 3,00 mg l-1was found more and equally

effctive 2, 000 mg l-1 can be accepted to be more logi-

cal for adaption. In the figure it is clearly show that

nitrogen and phosphorus content of grain was more

as compare to straw but potassium content was more

in straw of rice.

Figure 1. Nutrient content differes with treatments in both

grain and straw of rice

205

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