Mohammad Badruzzaman Siddiqui

Sustainable synthesis of highly substituted pyran derivatives using Schleichera oleosa leaf derived biochar functionalized with polyaniline (PANI@ALB) as an acid–base heterogeneous catalyst under ambient conditions.

Allelopathy, the phenomenon in which plants release biochemical compounds that influence the growth and development of neighbouring plants, presents promising opportunities for revolutionizing agriculture towards sustainability. This abstract explores the role of biotechnological advancements in unlocking the potential of allelopathy for sustainable crop production and its applications in agriculture, ecology, and natural resource management. By combining molecular, genetic, biochemical, and bioinformatic tools, researchers can unravel the complexities of allelopathic interactions and their potential for sustainable crop production and environmental stewardship. The development of novel management methods for weed control is getting a lot of attention with the introduction of new genetic technologies such as Gene drive, Transgene technologies, Gene silencing, Marker-assisted selection (MAS), and Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR-Cas9). By strengthening competitive characteristics these tools hold great promise for boosting crops’ ability to compete with weeds. Considering recent literature, this review highlights the genetic, transcriptomics, and metabolomics approaches to allelopathy. Employing allelopathic properties in agriculture offer sustainable benefits like natural weed management, pest management, and reduced chemical pollution, but challenges include environmental factors, toxicity, regulatory hurdles, and limited resources. Effective integration requires continued research, regulatory support, and farmer education​. Also, we aimed to identify the biotechnological domains requiring more investigation and to provide the basis for future advances through this assessment.

Allelopathy involves plants releasing allelochemicals, inhibiting nearby plants' growth and influencing their physiological and morphological characteristics. Donor plants with allelopathic capabilities dominate, impacting the survival of other plant species. The effect of Lepidium didymum stem aqueous extracts (SAE) on Lens culinaris and Melilotus alba was investigated in this study. The experiment involved extracting compounds from the stems of Lepidium didymum and applying varying concentrations (0.5, 1, 2, and 4%) of these stem extracts to test plant seeds and seedlings. Multiple parameters, including germination percentage, growth parameters, and biochemical activities, were measured and compared against the control group. Germination percentage, seedling growth, seedling length, fresh and dry biomass, chlorophyll, and carotenoid content decreased notably, especially at higher concentrations (4%), while proline content increased in a concentration-dependent manner. In 2021–2022, the experiment was carried out in the allelopathy laboratory department of Botany Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Scanning electron microscopy revealed ultrastructural abnormalities in the roots of the treated plants as compared to the control. Using GCMS analysis, 32 volatile chemicals were found in the methanolic extract of the stem. The compounds found in the major amounts are benzyl nitrile (291.19%), lauric acid (7.86%), benzene acetic acid (6.44%), 11-bromoundecanoic acid (7.36%), palmitic acid (4.85%), dodecanoic acid (4.80%), menthol, trans-1,3, cis-1,4 (3.28%), 11-bromoundecanoic acid (7.36%), and linolenic acid (8.64%). These compounds may be responsible for imparting an allelopathic effect on the test species, Lens culinaris and Melilotus alba. Our study revealed that the stem of L. didymum possesses a high concentration of water-soluble allelochemicals, which are thought to have reduced test plants’ growth and can be used as potential weedicides.