Chapter 5
Allelochemicals as Natural Herbicides
for Sustainable Agriculture to Promote
a Cleaner Environment
Hemalatha Palanivel, Gebiyaw Tilaye, Sathish Kumar Belliathan,
Solomon Benor, Solomon Abera, and M. Kamaraj
Abstract Allelopathy interaction initiates communication between plants and
microorganisms, by liberating secondary metabolites as signaling molecules that
have the potential to impact the growth and development of neighboring plants in
both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Herbicide residues pollute soil and groundwater, the hasty spread of invasive weed populations, growing resistant weed
species, and interrelated health hazards have directed the research focus to detect
and set up new alternative weed management approaches. Allelopathic strategies are
being a key phenomenon for weed control by breeding allelopathic varieties of
crops, allelopathic crops as cover crops, and incorporating them in crop rotational
cycle, and identification of allelochemicals from various sources, such as plants and
microorganisms, could proceed toward sustainable agriculture with a greener and
cleaner environment. Genetic mapping of QTLs linked to allelochemicals,
H. Palanivel (*) · S. Abera
Department of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Centre of Excellence of Bioprocess and Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology
University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
e-mail: hemalatha.palanivel@aastu.edu.et
G. Tilaye
Centre of Excellence of Bioprocess and Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology
University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
S. K. Belliathan
Centre for Environmental Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
S. Benor
Department of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
M. Kamaraj
Department of Biotechnology, College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa
Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Aravind et al. (eds.), Strategies and Tools for Pollutant Mitigation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63575-6_5
93
Allelochemicals as Natural Herbicides
for Sustainable Agriculture to Promote
a Cleaner Environment
Hemalatha Palanivel, Gebiyaw Tilaye, Sathish Kumar Belliathan,
Solomon Benor, Solomon Abera, and M. Kamaraj
Abstract Allelopathy interaction initiates communication between plants and
microorganisms, by liberating secondary metabolites as signaling molecules that
have the potential to impact the growth and development of neighboring plants in
both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Herbicide residues pollute soil and groundwater, the hasty spread of invasive weed populations, growing resistant weed
species, and interrelated health hazards have directed the research focus to detect
and set up new alternative weed management approaches. Allelopathic strategies are
being a key phenomenon for weed control by breeding allelopathic varieties of
crops, allelopathic crops as cover crops, and incorporating them in crop rotational
cycle, and identification of allelochemicals from various sources, such as plants and
microorganisms, could proceed toward sustainable agriculture with a greener and
cleaner environment. Genetic mapping of QTLs linked to allelochemicals,
H. Palanivel (*) · S. Abera
Department of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Centre of Excellence of Bioprocess and Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology
University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
e-mail: hemalatha.palanivel@aastu.edu.et
G. Tilaye
Centre of Excellence of Bioprocess and Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology
University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
S. K. Belliathan
Centre for Environmental Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
S. Benor
Department of Biotechnology, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia
Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
M. Kamaraj
Department of Biotechnology, College of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Addis Ababa
Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Aravind et al. (eds.), Strategies and Tools for Pollutant Mitigation,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63575-6_5
93