Exotic weed

Verbesina encelioides is an exotic wild plant species of family Asteraceae. As per recent survey, it is one of the recently emerging exotic weeds in Punjab state of India and shows various characteristics of establishment, growth and dominance like congress grass (Parthenium hysterophorus). The present study deals with phytochemical analysis and allelopathic potential of V. encelioides. For this study, cold and hot aqueous extracts of various parts of V. encelioides like leaves, stem and flowers were prepared separately to check the presence of phytochemicals which are believed to be mostly involved in allelopathic responses of the plants. Preliminary qualitative phytochemical analysis was carried out to identify the secondary metabolites present in the different parts of the selected plant. The analysis indicates the presence of ample number of phyto-constituents like terpenoids, phenols, saponins, tannins, proteins, amino acids, anthraquinones, alkaloids and reducing sugars in weed extracts.