Allelopathic effects of essential oils of Pinus halepensis Miller: chemical composition and study of their antifungal and herbicidal activities

摘要

The chemical composition, phytotoxic and antifungal activities of the essential oils isolated by hydrodistillation from the needles of Tunisian Aleppo pine harvested from different provenances were evaluated. The chemical composition analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) revealed variability among provenances displaying interesting chemotypes, (Z)-caryophyllene (16.16-28.9%), (3-myrcene (8.5-22.9%), a-pinene (11.7-13.14%), p-pinene (3.13-11.8%), bicycloger-macrene (5.2-12.37%), a-terpinolene (8.11-11.01%) and a-humulene (2.85-5.2%), which were the main components in the oil. Antifungal ability of Aleppo pine oils was tested by disc agar diffusion against 10 phytopathogenic fungi. Weak antifungal activity was observed for the essential oils isolated. Furthermore, in contrast, the herbicidal activity investigated for three common weeds in Tunisian cereal crops was very strong and seed germination was inhibited at a low concentration and their herbicidal effects were higher than those of a commercial herbicide.