This study aims to analyze the allelopathic effects of Persea venosa (pau-de-andrade) on several cultivars. For the tests, we used alcoholic extracts from the bark of pau-de-andrade, according to their medicinal use in four concentrations. The allelopathic activity was tested on different cultivars of corn, soybeans, lettuce and radish. The experiment was completely randomized, with four replications of 50 seeds. The chromatographic analysis of a thin layer, using silica as the stationary phase and solvents of different polarities as the mobile phase, was used to obtain the phytochemical profile, using specific developers to each class of secondary metabolites tested. It was observed that with an increasing concentration of the extract of P. venosa, there was an increase in the number of abnormal seedlings in all cultivars, reaching percentages of abnormality of 100% for corn and soybeans, 93% for lettuce, and 67.48% for radish at a 160 g/L concentration. Furthermore, the evidenced abnormalities were predominant in the seedling root system, causing, in all cases, necrosis, truncation, atrophy and increased number of hairs. Due to the severity with which the extracts affected the growth of seedlings and their normality, this study highlights the possible occurrence of cytotoxicity by the P. venosa species, which is widely used in traditional medicine.
Medicinal plant; Persea venosa; toxicity; allelopathy
