EFFECT OF WEDELIA TRILOBATA ESSENTIAL OIL ON THE GERMINATION AND SEEDLING GROWTH OF COWPEA

Wedelia trilobata is an invasive weed of the family Asteraceae.Objective of the study was to find out the impact of essential oil on the germination and seedling growth of cowpea. Different concentrations of essential oil(200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000ppm) were used,a controlwas kept without oil. Cowpea seeds were sown in these essential oil in petriplates,at the end of test period all the germination parameters were measured. All the germination parameters showed that treatment had no negative impact on germination. While root length,shoot length,embryo axis length,seedling length showed a significant variation in treatments compared to control. GC-MS analysis of essential oil revealed that it is a mixed chemotype and α-pinene (10.859 %), caryophyllene oxide (5.325%) and spathulenol (7.911%) are the major compounds.