this is a small project done at undergrad level on pathenium plant which is a harmful weed especially in INDIA it destroys the crops to a very large extent

1. ANTIMICROBIAL
POTENTIAL OF Parthenium
PLANT EXTRACTS AND
STUDY ON EFFECTS OF
PARTHENIUM PLANT
BIOMASS ON CROPS AND
SOIL MICROFLORA
By: Riddhi Karnik
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2. HPT ARTS AND RYK SCIENCE COLLEGE
BIOTECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
2
GUIDANCE FROM :ALL THE LECTURERS AND
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
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3. Last semester’s outline
 Extraction of Parthenium plant parts using various
solvents like ethanol & methanol
 Antimicrobial activity against E.coli & Xanthomonas citri
3
Soxhlet extraction
Horizontal distillation
Xanthomonas citri
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4. AIMS FOR PRESENT STUDY
 To study effect of Parthenium weed on crop plants.
 To study the effect of Parthenium weed on soil
microflora.
 To study the effect of aqueous extracts of Parthenium
weed leaves on saline soil’s fertility.
 To observe the effect of Parthenium plant extracts on
nitrogen fixing bacteria(Rhizobium)
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5. Objectives
 Utilisation of Parthenium weed against the plant
pathogen like Xanthomonas citri and human pathogen
like E.coli.
 Effect of Parthenium on crops and soil
 Whether Parthenium aqueous extract can impart its high
salt tolerance quality to crops.
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6. Introduction/Abstract
 Soil is the reservoir on which most of the life forms on
the earth depends. Top soil is biologically the most
diverse part of the earth and it plays vital role in
sustaining human welfare and assuring future
agricultural productivity and stability. Introduction of
weeds leads to loss of such a rich reservoir that is soil.
 Parthenium or congress weed is a noxious weed which
grows almost everywhere when introduced in any
ecosystem. Parthenium plant being a weed is found in
abundance due to its high stress tolerance and high
reproductively due to its pollen grains.Microflora gets
affected due to this weed.
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7. Continued.
 All extracts were prepared including ethanolic leaves
extract, methanolic leaves extract, and aqueous
leaves extract etc. Inhibitory effect was shown by
the extracts against Xanthomonas citri and E.coli.
 Pot assay was performed in this study which showed
results considerably it was found out that even if
Parthenium decreases the fertility of normal soil, it
increases soils fertility when used in the form of
dried biomass as well as in saline soil. When plant
extracts were used to treat saline soil containing
pots it showed opposite results by improving the
plant growth and increased number as compared to
saline control. Previously no one studied the aspect
of study regarding saline soil with aqueous extracts.
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8. Material and methods:
 1. Plant material: Parthenium hystrophorus entire plant
was uprooted from vicinity, then these plants were
washed thoroughly for two to three times and dried in
shade for 10-15 days. Further the plant parts were
differentiated as leaves, stem, roots and flowers and
powdered. These powdered parts were stored separately
in air tight containers which were further used for
extraction.
 Bacteria :Rhizobium a nitrogen fixing bacteria
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9. POT ASSAY
 5 pots were taken with soil
 Control: Pot containing normal soil
 Wet biomass: pot containing normal soil and fresh plant
biomass
 Dried biomass: pot containing normal soil along with dried
Parthenium plant biomass
 Saline control: pot containing highly saline soil having pH-8
to 8.5
 Saline soil with aqueous extract: pot containing saline soil
with pH-8to 8.5 and was given a constant dosage of
Parthenium leaves aqueous extract .
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10. Pot assay
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11.  Moong seeds were weighed 4 grams for each pot
 surface sterilized
 seeds were soaked in water for 5 to 6 hours
 1 set was soaked in aqueous extract for same time
 Then these seeds were planted
 Plants were observed for entire week for their proper
growth
 Saline soil pot of 5th
number were planted with moong seed
which were given the aqueous extract regularly in diluted
concentration(1 ml of aq. Extract +10ml of distilled water)
 Other pot plants were watered regularly
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13. Results
1. Zone of inhibition in case of Rhizobium
 With aqueous extracts
 Plate 1st
-0.2cm
 Plate 2nd
-0.3cm
 With Methanolic extracts
 1st
plate-1cm,
 2nd
plate-0.8cm
 This shows that nitrogen fixing bacteria are greatly
affected thus it may result in either failure or improper
yield of leguminous plants
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14. 14
Control plates and Rhizobium zone of inhibition
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15. 2.Results for pot assay
Sr
no
Specification
to be observed
1st
pot
control
2nd
pot
wet
biomass
3rd
pot
dried
biomass
4th
pot
saline
control
5th
pot
saline
aq. Ext.
1 Length of plant
in cm
14 12 16 14.2 14.8
2 Length of root
in cm
4 3.4 4.3 1.2 4.2
3 No. of leaves 2 2 2 2 2
4 Length of
leaves in cm
2.5 2.1 2.8 2 3.1
5 No. of plants 18 7 9 2 7
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16. 16
Pots from left to right serially: saline control, saline with
aqueous extract, wet biomass, dried biomass, control
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17. 17
 EFFECT ON MICROFLORA OF SOIL
Plates of serial dilution for obtaining the soil microflora
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18. 18
Pot no No. of
colonies
1st
198
2nd
133
3rd
140
4th
72
5th
117
Pot no. No .of colonies
1st
176
2nd
111
3rd
108
4th
52
5th
97
Number of colonies were counted using colony
counter
For 10-7
For 10-8
Further these colonies were screened for the type of bacteria
whether gram positive or gram negative
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19. 19
Pot no Type of bacteria
1st
control Gram positive and gram
negative
2nd
wet
biomass
Gram positive only
3rd
dried
biomass
Gram positive only
4th
saline
control
Gram positive and gram
negative
5th
saline with
aqueous
extract
Gram positive and gram
negative
Gram staining
Gram negative
Gram negative and positive bacteria
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20.  CONCLUSION:
 Parthenium as a weed affects the growth of plants or crops in terms
of their height, length of leaves and numbers.
 Parthenium also affects the microflora of soil by decreasing the
number of bacterial colonies.
 Gram negative bacteria get inhibited in presence of the Parthenium
plants to a great extent here in this study it was proved by the
inhibition of Rhizobium bacteria against aqueous also the methanolic
extract of leaves
 On contrary when the aqueous extracts were used for treatment on
saline sample it results in increased number of plants and increase
in amount of microflora of soil as compared to saline control.
 This study shows two aspects that in a normal soil contained with
the wet Parthenium decreases the growth of moong plants as well as
microflora of soil and on opposite side more number of moong plants
as compared to wet biomass was observed.
 Soil with high amount of salinity decreases the ability or fertility of
soil and crops fail to grow, taking into consideration that Parthenium
plant have high salt tolerance its aqueous extract was given to saline
soil on regular basis which showed increase in number of moong
plants and microflora as compared to the saline control.
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21. FUTURE PROSPECTS:
 Parthenium can be further proved important by the
study on various plant pathogens.
 At present this study can have application in enhancing
the growth of flowering plants in saline soil.
 In our further study we would like to see whether a plant
treated with Parthenium extract is safe for consumption
or not.
 Also investigation needs to be done on which compound
or factor results in decreased number of microbial soil
content
 Further study needs to be done on saline soil treated
with the aqueous extract which enhanced the bacterial
number to a considerable extent.
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22. 6. REFERNCES
 Ajay Kumar, Shailesh Joshi and Tripti Malik, ISSN 2250-
3137 ANTIMICROBIAL Potential of Parthenium
hysterophorus plant extracts, www.ijlbpr.com Vol. 2, No.
3, July 2013
 Seerjana maharjan, Bharat shrestha & Pramod Jha
(2007),”Allelopathic effect of aqueous extract of leaves
of Parthenium on germination and control of seedling
and wild herbaceous species”
 Yadav Neha, Saha Priyanka, Jabeen Sitara, Kumari
Suruchi, Kumari Sarita, Verma Sushma Kumari, Raipat
Bharti Singh and Sinha M P (2010), “Effect of Methanolic
Extract of Parthenium hysterophorus L. on
Haematological Parameters in Wistar Albino Rat”, The
Bioscan Special Issue, Vol. 2, pp357-363.
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23. Reference cont.
 Lalitha p,Shivani & Rama Rao (2012), “Parthenium
hysterophorus –An economical tool to increase the
agricultural productivity”
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24. End of presentation
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25. Queries are the best
ways to communicate
Any
questions?
?
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