Investigation of allelopathic substances from herbal plants may lead to the development of allelochemical-based natural herbicides. Croton oblongifolius (Roxb.) is a well-known herbal plant with a long history of being used for traditional medicines and for being the source of a diverse range of bioactive compounds. This plant has been reported to have allelopathic potential; however, its allelopathic-related substances have not yet been described. Therefore, we conducted this investigation to explore the allelopathic substances from the leaves of C. oblongifolius. Aqueous methanol extracts of C. oblongifolius leaves exhibited significant growth inhibitory potential against four test plants (monocot barnyard grass and timothy, and dicot cress and lettuce). The leaf extracts were purified in various chromatographic steps and yielded four active compounds identified as (3R,6R,7E)-3-hydroxy-4-7-megastigmadien-9-one (I), 2-hydroxy alpinolide (a novel compound) (II), alpinolide (III), and epialpinolide (IV) via an analysis of the spectral data. These identified compounds significantly restricted the seedling growth of cress. The concentration necessary for 50% growth reduction of the cress seedlings varied from 0.15 to 0.24 mM for (3R,6R,7E)-3-hydroxy-4-7-megastigmadien-9-one, 0.04 to 0.11 mM for 2-hydroxy alpinolide, 0.07 to 0.12 mM for alpinolide, and 0.09 to 0.16 mM for epialpinolide. Therefore, the leaf extracts of C. oblongifolius and the characterized compounds have the potential to be used as weed-suppressive resources for natural weed control.
Keywords: (3R,6R,7E)-3-hydroxy-4-7-megastigmadien-9-one; 2-hydroxy alpinolide; Croton oblongifolius; allelopathic potential; allelopathic substances; alpinolide; epialpinolide.