AUTOTOXIC IMPACT OF ESSENTIAL OIL EXTRACTED FROM LANTANA-CAMARA L

The effect of crude volatile oils extracted from the young leaves of L antana camara var. camara was studied on the parent plant itself The c ontents of water and chlorophyll, of leaves apart from seed gemination , seed vigour and length of seedlings of the parent plant were adverse ly affected with increasing concentration of the Lantana oils; this in dicated autotoxic potential of the oil The correlations between oil co ncentration and the studied parameters were rather strong and obeyed t he concentration response relationship, typical of chemical bases The cell respiration, however, increased with increasing concentration of the oil vapours. Compared to control, less than 13 % of the seeds of t he parent plant exposed to 30 cm 3 m-3 of oil showed incipient germina tion with no growth of radicle beyond unmeasurable protuberance, and n o plumule emergence.